196 PAMPERING SHEEP. 



PAMPERING. But when housing is connected with 

 pampering, with a high and forced system of feeding, the 

 case is different. To make show sheep, to make rams 

 saleable, to stimulate an unnatural growth of wool and 

 secretion of yolk, and thus produce what are termed " brag 

 fleeces" to cover up defects of carcass, to convey false 

 impressions as to the natural size and substance of the animal 

 some persons feed their sheep a good portion of the summer 

 and all winter, as much as they can safely get them to eat 

 of the richest feed. This treatment is not often given to 

 breeding ewes, at least in its full extent, for it materially 

 interferes with their own safety in lambing, and the lambs 

 are small, weak and difficult to raise. But to young 

 ewes kept for sale and for show sheep, and to rams kept for 

 sale, it is applied to the fullest extent. Thus a good sized 

 Merino ram is made to produce three or four more pounds, 

 and a good sized ewe one or two more pounds, of wool and 

 yolk, than they would if only kept in good ordinary condition. 



But he who buys such sheep (for other purposes than 

 slaughtering) particularly if they are descended from 

 several generations of ancestors which have been pampered 

 in the same way buys a spent hot -bed. It never will 

 produce again the monster fleece which tempted him to give 

 a monster price for it. If its feed is kept up, it has little 

 value for breeding purposes ; if its feed is taken off, it runs 

 down, becomes debilitated and incapable of withstanding 

 ordinary hardships, is subject to every malady, and succumbs 

 to the first one. This was the case with that tribe of monster 

 French rams which first spread over this country, and died 

 within a year like mushrooms ruining the reputation of the 

 breed. Some of them had been so thoroughly pampered, 

 that they could not sustain themselves on good pasturage, 

 and perished almost without disease, of mere debility. This 

 mode of preparing breeding sheep for sale is not a legal 

 fraud ; 1>ut it is dishonest and dishonorable by whomsoever it 

 may be practiced. 



No one will deny that every man has a right to keep his 

 sheep well, whether he proposes to sell them or not. Good 

 keeping may be pronounced the custom of all breeders. I 

 am not sure, indeed, that it is not necessary to certain 



breeder, the horse breeder, and the breeder of every other description ? The world 

 has agreed to find fault with no class of producers for " putting the best side out," 

 provided no deception is practiced and no injury done to the thing produced in thus 

 fitting it for market. 



