CHAPTER XXXI. 



GENERAL CAKE OF SHEEP FATTENING. 



I. Shepherd and Flock. 



783. Food of the sheep. The sheep is the plant- scavenger of 

 the farm. Through its dainty nibbling of herbage, we might 

 suppose its likes were few and dislikes many, yet every plant 

 at some period of its growth seems palatable. If sufficient num- 

 bers of sheep are kept on one field for any length of time, every- 

 thing green is eaten, many species of plants being entirely de- 

 stroyed. 



While sheep, like other farm animals, exhibit strong prefer- 

 ences for certain food articles, necessity may cause them to subsist 

 upon substances far removed from t the usual dietary. Low 1 re- 

 ports that the sheep of the Shetland Islands, feed upon seaweed 

 during the winter months, knowing by instinct the first ebbing 

 of the tide, and that they are fed dried fish when normal foods 

 are scarce. 



McDonald 2 writes of Iceland sheep : l ' The only kindness which 

 these animals receive from their keepers in the winter is being fed 

 on fish-bones and frozen offal, when their natural food is buried 

 too deep even for their ingenuity and patience. " 



While sheep may subsist upon articles such as are mentioned 

 above, the organs of mastication and digestion plainly indicate that 

 plants in some form constitute their natural food. The cutting 

 teeth in the lower jaw of the sheep fit against the cartilaginous 

 pad above in such manner that, when feeding, the herbage is torn 

 off rather than cut. The faeces of the sheep show the finest 

 grinding of any of our farm animals, minute weed seeds being 

 generally crushed and destroyed. 



1 The Breeds of the Domestic Animals of the British Islands. 



2 Cattle, Sheep and Peer, 



