An Anti-Tick Salve for Lambs

Abstract

THE salving or smearing of sheep in autumn was part of the normal routine on sheep-farms in Scotland during the latter half of the eighteenth century. For reasons of cost and the labour involved, this practice fell into disuse about 1860, except in the County of Sutherland, and was regarded as of merely historical interest by 1900. Although it is customary to regard this old practice as being devoid of any rational basis, such an assumption is incorrect, since it was generally recognized that, as well as receiving increased protection from adverse weather, salved sheep yielded heavier fleeces of washed wool than sheep whose fleeces had not been ‘laid’, when the animals were herded under comparable conditions.