No. 4.] SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 101 



HISTORY OF SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



BY HON. JAMES S. GRINNELL OF GREENFIELD. 



The subject of sheep husbandry, always one of the greatest 

 importance to the whole farming community, seems again to 

 be exciting general interest and attention in our State, and, 

 in the opinion of the Board of Agriculture, would be aided 

 and advanced by a somewhat extended consideration in a 

 paper which I was directed to prepare and bring before this 

 meeting, and by the full discussion which is to follow. 



In all ages the sheep has been a prominent representative 

 of rural husbandry, profitable and eminently respectable, 

 from the time that Abel, the first keeper of sheep, made to 

 the Lord an acceptable offering of the firstlings of his. 

 Hock — early lambs ; and many hundreds of years later that 

 great farmer and flock-master, Job, reckoned among his; 

 stock fourteen thousand sheep. 



Originally neither the flesh of the sheep nor of any other 

 animal was used as an article of food. According to Bibli- 

 cal history, only a vegetable diet was permitted, — the fruit 

 of every tree in the garden of Eden (with one exception) 

 "and eveiy herb of the field;" so that for about sixteeni 

 hundred years, till after the deluge, no sheep were killed to. 

 be eaten. It was only after Noah had stepped forth from 

 the ark and offered his sacrifice that the Divine permission 

 was given, " Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat 

 for you ; even as the green herb have I given you all things.'" 

 From this time on the flesh of the sheep was not only an 

 acceptable ottering to the Almighty, but as an article of 

 food is frequently mentioned in Holy Writ, from the dress- 

 ing of a single lamb in very early days down to the mag- 

 nificence of Solomon, who, besides his established character 

 for wisdom generally, manifested an exceeding good taste 



