Missouri Sheep Breeders' Session 



Tuesday, January 5, 1909. 



THE DOMESTIC SHEEP IN AMERICA. 



(Professor F. B. Mumford, Missouri Agricultural College.) 



We scarcely realize, at the present time, the place the domestic 

 animals have occupied in the advance of man toward civilization. 

 It is scarcely possible for us to conceive where the human race 

 might have been today if they had been compelled to have worked 

 out their civilization altogether unaided by domestic animals. We 

 can easily understand how, in ancient times, people were strong or 

 weak and progressed in civilization in proportion to their ability 

 to fight. We can readily understand how, for example, the horse 

 at one time came to be the great factor in determining which peo- 

 ple should rule. In the first place, horses were used not for haul- 

 ing wagons and carts, but were utilized solely for war purposes, 

 and the people that first developed an efficient cavalry were bound 

 to rule. In the advance of man in civilization, the domestic sheep 

 has been one of the most important of our domestic animals. They 

 have not contributed to the war-like progress of people, nor have 

 they contributed in the past nor do they now contribute to the 

 savage instincts of man. Nevertheless the humble sheep has sup- 

 plied clothing and flesh for unnumbered generations to civilized 

 peoples. 



The domestication of sheep is of great antiquity. We find 

 sheep first mentioned in connection with the farming operations of 

 Cain and Abel. Cain was a grain farmer and Abel a sheep 

 farmer; and we are told that Abel was justified in the sight of his 

 God, and the sheepmen have ever since enjoyed the protection of 

 Divine Providence. 



In our own countrj^, domestic animals have played a particu- 

 larly important part. There has never been in the history of the 



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