V 



THE SHEEP 



I. General Considerations and Qualities 

 Common to the Species 



One of the most ancient, if not the most 

 ancient, of domestic animals is the sheep. It 

 is the first mentioned in the Bible. Abel was 

 a shepherd, which proves that the earliest 

 known men followed that calling side by side 



master bade him, and been protected as much 

 as possible against all dangers, he has become 

 stupid and dreamy ; his senses have lost their 

 acuteness. The vigilance and perspicacity 

 shown by certain wild sheep still existing have 

 given place, in the domestic animal, to a meek- 

 ness and docility that are now proverbial. 



A Dutch -Shmep FarjM 



with tillage of the soil. In the beginning this 

 animal certainly could not have been found in 

 a tame state ; consecjuently our present wool 

 and mutton sheep must have come from a wild 

 ancestry. But all that is lost in the night of 

 time. He has now become, in his domestic 

 state, so entirely dependent on man that he 

 could not exist without him. Having always 

 yielded to his master's will, gone where that 



Sheep are very easily acclimated, so that 

 we find them in the coldest climates, and also 

 in the hottest. They bear the cold of Siberia, 

 Kamchatka, and our western plains as well as 

 the heat of Senegal, the Indies, and Australia, 

 which, however, does not prevent them from 

 preferring a temperate climate and thriving in 

 it. They can bear a dry cold better than much 

 humidity. 



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