THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 115 



weight of flesh and bones in any time of its life. When the 

 fleece is mature the animal is often burdened with a load 

 about as heavy in proportion to his size as is a horse by the 

 weight of its rider and accoutrements. 



As a flesh producer, particularly in sterile fields, sheep are 

 more valuable than our horned cattle. They mature more 

 rapidly, attaining their adult size and reproducing their kind 

 in less than two years, so that in many parts of the world it 

 is possible to obtain a larger quantity of flesh from poor pas- 

 turages with sheep than with any other of our domesticated 

 animals. Their principal value, however, has been from the 

 means they afforded whereby men in high latitudes have 

 obtained warm clothing. Before the domestication of these 

 creatures, peoples who had to endure the winter of high lati- 

 tudes were forced to rely upon hides for covering a form of 

 clothing which is clumsy, uncleanly, and which the chase 

 could not supply in any considerable quantity. Owing to its 

 peculiar structure, the hair of the sheep makes the strongest 

 and warmest covering, when rendered into cloth, which, has 

 ever been devised for the use of man. The value of this con- 

 tribution is directly related to the conditions of climate. In 

 the intertropical regions the sheep plays no part of impor- 

 tance. In high latitudes it is of the utmost value to man. 

 No other of our domesticated creatures, except the camel, is 

 so specially adapted to the needs which peculiarities of climate 

 impose upon their possessors. 



The relations of the goat to mankind are in certain ways 

 peculiar. The creature has long been subjugated, probably 

 having come into the human family before the dawn of his- 

 tory. It has been almost as widely disseminated, among bar- 

 barian and civilized peoples alike, as the sheep. It readily 



