Much of the grain was never harvested, whilst owing mainly to the excessive floods there commenced an outbreak of liver-rot in sheep, due to the ravages of the fluke parasite.
Wet summers are followed by an acute outbreak of liver-rot amongst sheep and this, together with the effects of other diseases that accompany wet seasons, cause the death of vast numbers of sheep, the numbers from both sources being estimated in bad years at from 12 to 3 millions in England alone.
Wet land, if in grass, produces only the coarser grasses, and many subaquatic plants and mosses, which are of little or no value for pasturage; its herbage is late in spring, and fails early in autumn; the animals grazed upon it are unduly liable to disease, and sheep, especially, to foot-rot and liver-rot.