MEMOIRS 



OF THE 



AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 



OF 



PHILADELPHIA, 



On Sheep, By John D. Steele, near Downing Town, 

 Chester County, Pennsylvania. 



Read June 11th, 1805. 



THE illustrious BufFon has very justly observed, 

 that " the sheep is an animal to man the most valuable, 

 its utility the most immediate and extensive ; it alone 

 satisfies wants of the greatest necessity, it furnishes 

 both food and apparel, besides the advantages arising 

 from the skin, suet, milk, entrails, bones, and dung of 

 this creature, to which nature seems to have given no- 

 thing as its property ; all is to be delivered up to man." 

 To this splendid catalogue of the valuable properties of 

 sheep, an additional item may be placed, which enhances 

 their value in a high degree to the farmers of Pennsyl- 

 vania; viz. many of the weeds that disfigure their fields 

 in autumn, furnish sheep with agreeable and nutritive 

 food; few are refused by them, and rag- weed, (AmhrO' 

 sia elatiorj they eat with avidit)'-. This last advantage 

 seems not sufficiently appreciated by the generality of 



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