SHEEP. 353 



ensuing, and every necessary attention given them. This 

 would be necessary if indigenous to the country ; ho\v much 

 more so, when they have just undergone a campaign, to which 

 neither they nor their race have been accustomed. 



Sheep cannot be kept on the prairies without much care, 

 artificial food, and proper attention ; and in a false system of 

 economy, hitherto attempted by many, losses have occurred 

 from disease and mortality in the flocks, sufficient to have 

 made ample provision for the comfort and security of twice 

 the number saved. More especially do they require proper 

 food and attention, after the first severe frosts set in, which 

 wither and kill the natural grasses. By nibbling at the fog, 

 (the frost bitten, dead grass,) they are inevitably subject, to 

 constipation, which a bountiful supply of roots, sulphur, &c., 

 are alone sufficient to remove. Roots, grain, and good hay; 

 straw, or corn-stalks, pea or bean-vines, are essential to the 

 preservation of their health and thrift during the winter, any 

 where north of 40. In summer, the natural herbage is suffi- 

 cient to sustain them in fine condition, till they shall have ac- 

 quired a denser population of animals, when it will be found 

 necessary to stock their meadows with the best varieties of 

 artificial grasses. 



The prairies seem adapted to the usual varieties of sheep 

 introduced into the United States ; and of such are the flocks 

 made up, according to the taste or judgment of the owners. 

 Shepherd dogs are invaluable to the owners of flocks, both as 

 preventives against the small prairie wolf, which prowls 

 around the flock, but which are rapidly thinning off by the 

 settlers ; and also as assistants to the shepherds in driving 

 and herding their flocks on the open ground. 



DISEASES OF SHEEP. 



The dry and healthful climate, the rolling surface, and the 

 sweet and varied herbage which generally prevail in the 

 United States, insure perfect health to an originally sound 

 and well-selected flock, unless peculiarly exposed to disease. 

 No country is better su^ed to sheep, than most of the northern 

 and some of the southern parts of our own. In Europe, and 

 especially in England, where the system of management is 

 necessarily, in the highest degree artificial, consisting fre- 

 quently in early and continued forcing the system, folding on 

 wet, ploughed grounds, and the excessive use of that watery 

 food, the Swedes turnip, there are numerous and fatal diseases. 

 Hence the long list which lumbers the pages of foreign wri- 



