THE IlEASON WHY. 



" First, with assiduous care, from winter keep 

 Well foddered in the stalls, thy tender sheep; 

 Then spread with straw the bedding of thy fold ; 

 With fern beneath, to fend the bitter cold." DRYDKN. 



f maceration is going forward, abundantly supplied with absorbent or alkaline 

 earth the one, however, destined to crop little more than the summit of 'he grass, 

 and the other to go almost close to the roots, and occasionally to browse on harder 

 food will have an interesting illustration of the manner in which every part 

 of every animal is adapted to the situation in which he is placed, and the destiny lie 

 has to fulfil. The pad, also, is firmer and denser than in cattle, yet sufficiently 

 elastic, so that it is in no danger of injury from the sharp chisels below, while the 

 interposed substance is cut through with the greatest ease. 



572. Why will sheep follow each other even into evident 



For two reasons. From the strength of their social instinct, 

 which leads them to move together in flocks, and seldom if ever 

 singly, or in an isolated manner. Secondly, there is no animal 

 in which the faculty of imitation of the movements of their own 

 species is so strong as in sheep. 



573. These instincts appear to have been wisely implanted in one of the most 

 valuable and defenceless of domesticated animals, in order that they might be 

 taken advantage of by the intelligence of man. 



The leaders of the flock having been instructed and rendered manageable, the 

 obedience of the rest is secured. Every one has seen an illustration of this, where 

 a butcher has succeeded in housing a large number of sheep by simply dragging in 

 01 e of them. So great is their dislike of solitude, that if an individual is thus kept, 

 it pines and very soon dies. 



574. Why is the upper lip of the sheep divided? 



Because it is thereby enabled to bite the herbage at a point 

 nearer to the roots than it otherwise would. 



The sheep bites closer than the ox, and is enabled to follow the 

 Litter, and to procure a sufficient sustenance where the latter 

 would starve. Two purposes are answered by this : all the 

 nutriment that the land produces is gathered from it, and the 

 pasture is made to produce more herbage than by any other 

 means.* 



575. Wliy is there less difference between wild and cultivated 

 sheep than between wild and tame cattle of the ox kind ? 



Because sheep, however highly cultivated, seldom or evet 



For very manv interesting questions respecting the economy of sheep, ottltia 

 &o., see "The Reason Why: Gardening and Farming." 



