§ MR. TREVELYAN (Yorkshire, W.R., Elland)I beg to ask the hon. Member for South Somersetshire, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether the Board are aware of the dissatisfaction existing in Northumberland at the Sheep Dipping (North of England) Order of 1906; whether they are aware that the outbreaks of sheepscab in the county have averaged only 10 per annum for the last five years out of more than a million sheep; and whether under the circumstances the Board can withdraw the Order.
§ SIR EDWARD STRACHEY (Somersetshire, S.)We are aware that Northumberland is comparatively free from sheepscab at the present time, but the Board think that it would be unwise to omit the county from the area to which the Order applies. The Order does little more than render general the existing practice of the principal flockmasters in the county as regards the dipping of sheep.