1064 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Paht III. 



ference between one eighth end one sixteenth is very considerable, and must certainly be easily perceived, 

 Ik ith by ■ good microscope, and in the doth which is manufactured from such wool In the latter method, 



lie add-, " it certainly has been perceived , but 1 have hitherto had no opportunity of trying the difference 

 by the former. The fifth Croat, at I have before obaervi d, bring! the Merino- Wilts wool to the tame 

 standard as the fourth of the Met inn Ryeland." Corn, to the /■' iard qf Agr. vol. v. p. 4.'58.) 



\ In the lambing season, the Ryeland breed are usually cotted, because the new-born lambs arc very 

 thinly covered with wool .\« Januarj was considered the best lambing season tor the produce of Die 

 cross, Dl Parrj found cutting was doubly necessary. Every night the flock were well sheltered; and 

 the) were allowed, in addition to the pasture which they could pick up in the day-time, linseed jelly, 

 ground oil. cake, or grams, cabbages, rouen, wintei and spring vetches, and tares. Silt, he say?, I never 



'.i my (lock but once, I that in the following way : — A small field of lattermath, cut in September, 



had been v. oft) ii wetted, that I despaired of its ever being eaten While it was putting into the rick, I 

 strewed some ■ i It between the laj era : the consequence was, that cows and sheep greedily devoured it, 

 I] leaving a Single blade. {Com. to the Bonn! of Agr. vol v. p. 505.) 

 The shearing of the theep was performed in the second week of June, and of the lambs at the end 

 of July The tiner fleeced lambs need not be shorn till the second season. Washing previously to shear. 

 ing I)r Parry disapproves of; because the fleece is mi thick, that when thoroughly soaked with water, it 

 i- i.n long in drying; and it the weather prove wet and cold, the sheep are evidently much incommoded; 

 he therefore recommends cleansing the wool, after being shorn, as in Spain. 



The produce p/ wool, considered as the result of Dr. Parry's well conducted experiments, was 



1 to be 1 1 lb- 1 I o/ per acre, which at .'i.v. per lb. in the yolk throughout the fleece gives '-'/. -is. 7j</ per 

 n land certainly not worth on an average 26\s. {See Comm. to the B of Agriculture, vol. v.) 



Lot d S on, mile's experiment* may be considered as of equal, if not more importance than these 

 of I)r Parry. Hi- Lordship tried crosses with several short- woolled breeds, but was most successful with the 

 South Downs and Ryelands. Morris liirkbeck, a professional farmer of the first order, found that the 

 fleeces of the Brat cross between Merinos and South Downs, washed, are to the parent South Downs as 

 ,-ix t<> live in weight, and as three to two in value per pound, and believes that the improvement of the 

 wool may go on, without detriment to the carcass, until we shall obtain a breed of sheep with Spanish 

 fleeces ami English constitutions ; but this must be the result of careful and judicious selection. 



Merino flockt are now established in most districts of the empire, ami but few years can elapse 

 before their value to the farmer and the country be practically ascertained and evinced. (See Sir J. B inks 

 in Annals of Agriculture, Com. to B. of Agr. Bath Society's Papers, Dublin Society's Transactions, The 

 Farmer's Magazine, Farmer's Journal. Lord Somerville's and Dr. Parry's Tracts on Wuol and Merinos, 

 and various other works.) 



Sect. VIII. Anatomy and Physiology of Sheep. 



7239. The general structure of the sheep resembles that of the ox very intimately. 

 Sheep however, like the ox, experience considerable variations in size, form, and qualities ; 

 resulting from the physical and moral agencies which they become exposed to, under 

 various climates : and also, as whether fostered by cultivation, or left to the natural 

 operations of nature around them. These circumstances have operated on even the 

 bony base of the machine, as we see in the formations of the three- horned breed ((/vis 

 polyccrata Lin.), natives of the north ; in the spiral-horned (0. Strepsiceros Lin.), which 

 inhabit Wallachia; and the long-horned (Capra A'mmon Lin.), which are found in the 

 countries bordering the Mediterranean : and which have been thought to be the parents 

 of the present cultivated British sheep. 



7240. Cultivation weakens the otherwise inherent aptitude to retain the original stamp of nature ; and 

 we find, therefore, that by these means, tile original form of the sheep has submitted to vast alterations. 

 We see some of them wholly without horns; we also find that the bony structure is otherwise subjected 

 to our command, by becoming much more slender, though more compact. Accidents are also laid hold 

 on by man to produce particular forms : thus a breed has been cultivated in America, called the anion or 

 otter breed, remarkable lor crooked and deformed legs; which, by continued breeding from specimens 

 that presented this originally accidental deformity, is become now a fixed and permanent breed, valuable 

 fol their Incapacity to wander or climb. [Dutight.) The dunkv, or wry-faced breed, is another instance 

 of accidental deformity cultivated into a permanent variety : as the monstrous rump of the Tartarian 

 Sheep, and the over-grown tail- of some breeds in Turkey, and the Cape of Good Hope, are similar 

 instances in the softer part- of the body 



7241. The skeleton <>/ the sheep presents an assemblage of bones, which bears a general resemblance to 

 th.it ol the ox ill number and direction. Like him, the head naturally is surmounted by horns springing 

 from the trout;. 1 bone*. Like him, his frontal sinuses an- large ana open, and thus liable to the entrance 

 ol insect*. 1 In- skull bones are wide and extended; his orbits are more lateral than central ; and his 

 facial angle i- about thirty degrees. His vertebral column is the same as the ox, and his ribs also. The 

 extremities descend on the tame construction, ending in a divided hoof. 



7242. The visceral and soft /„< ts are but little dissimilar likewise. His brain is as one two-hundredth 

 to the whole body ; and In.- cerebellum to the brain generally, as one to five. The pigment of the eve is 

 oi a pale yellowish green, varying occasionally to a blue. The viscera of the chest correspond with' the 



P* • •'"" " "' tile bell) also, tie- stomal h- being Hie same, and the economy oi rumination not differ. 



nig 1 1><- liver, pancreas, and spleen are similar. The penis is taper, vesiculae seminales wanting, and 

 prostrates two 



, q) the she, p \s but a crisped hair ; and indeed in some foreign varieties, the outer cover- 



ing is of long hair like that of oxen j while in others, the hair and wool are mixed. 



Sect. I X. Diseases of Sheep. 

 72 I I. The diseases of sheep are numerous ; for thee animals are now so highly culti- 

 vated that thev may Ik- regarded in some respects as artificial machines: and thus, as a 

 natural consequence, the; are subjected to a variety of artificial defects or maladies. 



7245 The rut tit a popular term among shepherds, and includes within its range diseases widely dif. 

 rc-rent. We shall not, the. ,« the custom „i treating the different rots of sheep together : but we 



Shan allow them to fall in their natural order, according to the plan pursued with the diseases of oxen 



Jo The inflammatory and putrid/ever, popularly known bv the names higham striking, or blood strilc 

 tng, does not differ materially from the same disease in oxen and cows; and is in sheep also sometimes 

 epidemic ; appearing by panting, dulness, watery mucus from the nose and eyes ; and great redness of all 

 such parts as are usually white. 



7-17. The red water. The inflammatory fever sometimes resolves itself into an universal secretion of 

 serum throughout all the cavities; in which ca»c, after a lew days, the lymph tinged with blood will come 



