390 THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. 



SO easily buried under the snow, but also renders them 

 much easier to be discovered by the owner. In this 

 situation they sometimes remain so many days that 

 they are compelled by hunger to gnaw each other *s 

 wool, which forming into hard balls in their stomacns, 

 often destroys them. 



A good sheep of the Icelandic breed will yield from 

 two to six quarts of milk a day ; and of this the in- 

 habitants make butter and cheese. But the most 

 valuable part of these animals is the wool, which, like 

 the argali, is stripped off at once at the end of May. 

 The whole body is by this time covered again with new 

 wool, which is short and extremely fine. It continues 

 to grow during the summer, and becomes towards 

 autumn of a coarser texture, very shaggy and some- 

 what resembling camel's hair. This covering enables 

 the sheep to support the rigours of winter ; but if after 

 losing their fleece the spring' prove wet, a piece 

 of coarse cloth is usually sewed round the stomachs 

 of the weakest to defend them from any ill effects. 



OF THE DISEASES OF SHEEP, 



The great inconvenience which attends sheep, is their 

 being subject to the rot ; which it is a hard thing to 

 prevent if the year proves very wet, especially in May 

 and June, except it be salt marshes, or in broomy 

 lands, broom being one of the best preservatives against 

 that distemper of any thing. I have known sheep 

 cured of the rot when they have not been far gone with 

 It only by being put in the broom-lands. Scurvy- 

 gi'ass, parsly, mustard, thyme, and all other sorts 



