260 THE AMERICAN FARMER 



SHEEP. 



THE history of sheep husbandry dates back to a period almost as remote as that of the 

 human race, and from that time until the present, sheep have been regarded as indis 

 pensable to man s comfort and welfare, whether among the nomadic, semi-barbarous 

 tribes, or those races characterized by the highest civilization the world has ever known. 

 Sheep husbandry has justly been regarded by all civilized nations as worthy a most prominent 

 position in agriculture and commerce ; in fact, the record of progress in civilization for more 

 than a century past, shows a similar progress in the improvement of this useful domesticated 

 animal. From the time of Abel, brother of the first born of the human race, who is referred 

 to in the Scriptures as &quot;a keeper of sheep,&quot; until the present, they have been regarded as 

 a source of profit to the keeper ; and when Fitzherbert as long ago as the year 1534 said, 

 &quot; Sheep is the most profitablest cattle a man can have,&quot; he not only expressed a truism suited 

 to his own time, but an opinion in which the majority of agriculturists of the present day 

 fully concur. If this were true of the flocks of his time, how much more so of the perfected 

 breeds of the present period. 



Their flesh is highly valued by all classes, is wholesome and nutritious, and furnishes no 

 small per cent, of the meat supplied by our markets; their wool furnishes one of the most 

 valuable materials for clothing etc. that can be procured, while they are an important source 

 of revenue to the farmer, and also furnish a most valuable means of maintaining the fertility of 

 his lands. In some countries they are raised principally for their wool; in others for their 

 flesh, where mutton is the principal meat diet. It is surprising to note the improvements 

 that have been made in this animal even during the past century, those bred a hundred years 

 ago presenting a very ungainly appearance, with long legs, the fleece being small and of an 

 inferior quality; they also yielded a smaller amount of meat of poorer quality, and required 

 a long time to mature. By careful and judicious propagation, new breeds have been pro 

 duced that supply wool of the long and fine fiber, with a much larger proportion of profitable 

 meat of better quality, and with quickened growth and maturity, which latter fact is of 

 no small import to the farmer respecting the profits to be derived from rearing them. Per 

 haps no animal in the brute creation, unless it be the dog, exhibits a greater diversity of 

 character than the sheep. This variation is seen in form, size, color, length, and texture of 

 wool etc., and no animal is more widely distributed throughout the different zones and cli 

 mates, or subsists on a greater variety of food. It is found in every latitude from the 

 equator to the arctic, on the bleak shores and mountains of Greenland, and the burning 

 deserts of Africa, and subsists upon grasses, shrubs, weeds, grains, roots, leaves, barks, etc. 

 In some countries where the winters are extremely severe, it is said, in times when other 

 resources fail, to subsist upon fish or flesh, as is often the case in Lapland. When driven 

 to great necessity from hunger, sheep have been known to eat their own wool. Numerous 

 instances of the latter kind have been known where they have been temporarily covered by an 

 avalanche of snow, or lost on the prairies in a severe snow storm. In the vast pine forests of 

 Norway and Sweden, they often subsist on these resinous and aromatic evergreens when, 

 owing to an extremely rigorous winter, there is a scarcity of other food. 



Sheep vary greatly with respect to size and other characteristics. Mr. Killebrew, of 

 Tennessee, describes these characteristics in the following manner: 



&quot; In the Orkney Islands they are so small as to appear like toys. Like the diminutive 

 ponies of the Shetlands, neighbors of the Orkneys, they are brought to the warmer climates 

 as a curiosity. By the side of the massive Cotswold or Southdown they appear very little like 

 the same species. Some have long, tapering, straight horns, like the gazelle, while others have 

 the huge spiral horns of the mountain, or big horns of the Osage Mountains. Others, again, 

 are without horns altogether, as are most of the mutton sheep. The same difference exists 



