SHEEP 271 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

 SHEEP. 



Sheep have two main uses, the production of mutton 

 and the production of wool. In ancient times shepherds 

 also kept them for their milk. For these two present pur- 

 poses there are now a number of breeds of sheep. 



Types. — Those which produce the most and best mutton 

 are blocky in form and correspond closely in outhne to the 

 beef type in cattle. Sheep that naturally have a lean, angu- 

 lar frame, like a good dairy type of cow, are of the type best 

 suited for wool production. 



Breeds Classified. — Many of the conmion breeds of 

 sheep are used both for wool and mutton. They are, there- 

 fore, usually grouped according to the length or fineness of 

 wool, as: fine or short wooled; mediitm wooled; and coarse 

 or long wooled. The medium and the coarse wooled sheep 

 comprise the mutton breeds. 



Coarse Wooled Breeds. — The coarse or long-wooled 

 sheep include the Leicester (Les-ter), Lincoln, and Cotswold. 

 They all originated in England. 



The Cotswolds (Fig. 175) are much more common in 

 America than the others of the coarse wooled group. They 

 are larger than most other sheep, the males attaining a 

 weight of 250 pounds or more. The meat from the lambs 

 is of fair quality. They have no horns; the face is always 

 white. The locks of crimpy wool are often twelve inches in 

 length. The fleece or annual shearing from a Cotswold will 

 average ten pounds of rather coarse wool with long staple 

 or fiber. 



The Leicester s are of much the same type as the Cotswold; 

 but the head is without wool, the fleece is not in curly locks, 



