DIGEST OF STATE REPORTS. 427 



Mr. John H. Mead, in an article on sheep-husbandry, gives some facts 

 which will no doubt prove of interest to many persons engaged in rear- 

 ing sheep. As to the mode of determining the age of sheep, he says : 



The age of tlio fiheep is generally determined by their teeth. When they are about 

 one year and a half old, they shed their two center teeth of the incisors, and two wide 

 ones grow out and take their place. The next year the next two are shed, and when the 

 sheep is three years old the four central teeth are fully grown. At four years they 

 have six teeth, and at live years the teeth are perfectly developed. This is one 

 year before the horse or ox can be said to be fully mouthed. This rule for the age of 

 sheep will hardly ever fail in ewes ; but sometimes will in the case of rams. If not too 

 old, their age may bo determined by the growth of their horns each year. The differ- 

 ence caused in the shedding of their teeth may be by the manner in which the sheep 

 are cared for. If well led and kept in a thriving condition, they will shed them faster, 

 and vice versa. Some sheep with the full mouth will hold their teeth much longer than 

 others. The natural age of sheep is about ten years, to which time they will thrive 

 and breed well. 



In regard to the peculiar skin of sheep, the formation and growth of 

 wool, &c., Mr. Mead says: 



The skin of sheep is composed of three textures. Externally is the cuticle or scarf- 

 skin, which is thin, tough, devoid of feeling, and pierced by innumerable minute holes, 

 through which pass the fibers of the wool and the insensible perspiration. It seems to 

 be of a scaly texture. This is plain to be seen when the sheep have the scab. Below 

 this is the rete mucosum, a soft structure, its fibers having scarcely more consistence than 

 mucilage, and being with great difficulty separated from the skin beneath. This seems 

 to be placed as a defense to the terminations of the blood-vessels and nerves of the 

 skin, and these are in a manner enveloped and covered by it. Beneath is the cutis or 

 true skin, composed of innumerable minute fibers crossing each other in every direc- 

 tion, highly elastic, in order to fit closely to the parts beneath and to yield to the various 

 motions of the body. Judging from the mixture of wool and hair in the coat of most 

 animals, it is thought by some that the primitive sheep had a hairy covering. It is 

 said that there are at the present day varieties of sheep that are clothed outwardly with 

 hair of different degrees of fineness, and underneath the external coat is a softer, shorter, 

 and closer one that answers to the description of fur, but which really possesses all the 

 characteristics of wool. It is, therefore, highly improbable that the sheep, which has 

 now become by cultivation the wool-bearing animal, should, in any country, have ever 

 been entirely destitute of wool. Sheep of almost every variety have at times been in 

 the gardens of the Zoological Society of London, but there has not been one on which 

 a portion of crisped wool, although exceedingly small, has not been found at the bot- 

 tom of the hair. The filament of the wool has scarcely pushed itself through the pores 

 of the skin when it has to penetrate through another and singular substance, which, 

 from its adhesiveness and color, is called the yolk. It is found in greatest quantity 

 about the Ijreast and shoulders, the very parts that produce the best and most abundant 

 wool, and in proportion as it extends to any considerable degree over other parts, the 

 wool is then improved. It differs in quantity in different breeds; it is very abundant 

 in the Merino. 



The yolk being a true soap, soluble in water, accounts for the comparative ease with 

 which the sheep that have the natural proportion of it are washed in a running stream. 

 The fiber o<|the wool having penetrated the skin and escaped from the yolk, is of a cir- 

 cular form, generally larger toward the extremity and also toward the root, and in some 

 instances very cousiderably so. When the animal is in good condition and the fleece 

 healthy the appearance of the fiber is brilliant, but when the state of the constitution 

 is bad the fiber has a doll appearance, and either a wan, pale Hght, or sometimes 

 scarcely any, is reflected. 



Mr. Henry Lane, in a paper on breeding and feeding sheep for the 

 market, says : 



For breeding ewes for early lambs, I prefer the grade Merino, avoiding the wrinkly, 

 short, gummy-wooled ones, selecting those of a vigorous constitution, broad, wide- 

 hipped, short-legged, tendency to early maturity, prolific breeders and good milkers, 

 of an age not less than three or more than six years. Such a selection requires good 

 judgment. To serve the ewes I prefer a Southdown ram to either a Leicester or Cots- 

 wold. Rams should be put with the ewes in September, that the Iambs may be 

 dropped in February. . It takes about ninety days to make a lamb suflicient size and 

 fatness for market. ' At this age they should weigh 60 pounds. The ewe should have 

 f('< d that will keep up her condition and produce an abundance of milk. During the 

 Huckliug period she needs as heavy feeding as a grain wether when fattening — corn to 

 keep her in flesh, oats, bran, oil-meal, buckwheat, and a free feeding of roots to pro- 

 duce milk. 



