1 1 68 Rural School Leaflet 



teeth and lips, coupled with the small size of the animal, enables sheep 

 to graze land much more closely than can cattle. 



After the food has been partly masticated it passes down through 

 the gullet, or esophagus, into the first of the four stomachs, called the 

 rumen. If we remember the order to which sheep belong, Ruminantia, 

 we shall have no trouble in remembering the name of the first stomach. 

 Here the food is somewhat softened by the warmth and moisture, and 

 is formed into long pellets. Later, when the sheep " chews its cud " 

 these are forced back into the gullet and thence into the mouth. 

 There they are thoroughly masticated and reswallowed. This time 

 the food does not stop at the opening into the rumen, but passes on 

 into the third stomach. The opening into the rumen from the esophageal 

 canal is merely a slit, which probably opens and closes automat- 

 ically and does not respond to the food after its remastication. 

 The food, on its way to the third stomach, passes the opening into 

 the second stomach, or reticulum. The reticulum serves as an aid to 

 the rumen. It is usually full of liquid, and may serve as a storage place 

 for water for immediate use, much as in the well-known case of the camel. 



The third stomach is known as the omasum, or, commonly, the "many- 

 plies," because of the large number of " leaves " that make up its lining. 

 Here the food gets its final squeezing and grinding, until it is sufficiently 

 worked over and disintegrated to be acted on by the gastric juice of the 

 fourth stomach. 



This last compartment is the true stomach, corresponding to the single 

 stomach in the horse or in man. It is called the abomasum. Here the 

 gastric juice is formed and true digestion takes place. The food now 

 receives its final disintegration and the nutritive parts are dissolved, 

 ready to be absorbed by the villi of the intestines. 



The intestines are made up of a long tube which is doubled many 

 times upon itself. The internal coat of these organs is covered with thou- 

 sands of minute absorbent vessels called villi. This coat is a network 

 of blood-vessels and so-called lacteals, resembling the close pile of velvet. 

 The food passes through these organs where the villi pick out the nutri- 

 tive part and pass it into the blood; the blood takes the nutriment to 

 those parts of the body in which it is most needed. 



From the above facts we see that the construction of the digestive 

 tract is not only interesting to the shepherd but instructive also. He 

 should have as thorough knowledge of this construction as possible, for 

 it is in these parts of the body of the sheep that most of the mishaps and 

 ordinary diseases arise. 



It would seem that these peculiar organs must have been designed 

 especially for these shy creatures, which seen to have little or no means 



