''^'* MANAGEMKNT OF SHF.tP. 



or a bird-fancier, but knows to a tittle the peculiariiifS 

 of the creature that ho has in charge, and endeavours, 

 to the best of his ability, to provide such food as its 

 instincts crave. Not so, however, with the store- 

 farnmer. He cares not to inquire whether the sheep is 

 naturally calculated to subsist on one kind of nutri- 

 ment; and if so, whether they will, when left to the 

 exercise of instinct, resort to turnips of their own 

 accord ; whether the sheep is usually restricted to con- 

 fined localities similar to our fields, or is the unrestrained 

 rover over an extensive pasture. Yet it is from inves- 

 tig-ations of this kind that we are to derive our mode of 

 treating- sheep, and are to form plans beneficial to our- 

 selves, from their being, in a manner, improvements 

 upon nature. We find, from a perusal of the works of 

 travellers, and from the anatomical peculiarities of the 

 sheep, that it is fitted for residence in countries preci- 

 pitous in surface, and scantily supplied with herbage ; 

 consequently, it must range over a vast extent of 

 ground for a subsistence, and its food must, owing to 

 the varied features of the country, consist, not of one 

 or of a few plants, but of a most extensive mixture of 

 herbage. Experiment also points out that the deduc- 

 tions from these observations are correct. Sheep, in 

 fact, consume a greater number of plants than any other 

 domestic animal. Linnasus, in examining into this 

 subject, found, by offering fresh plants to such animals, 

 in the ordinary mode of feeding, that horses ate 262 

 species, and refused 212 ; cattle ate 276 species, and 

 refused 218; while sheep took 387 species, and only 

 refused 141. We find, too, great difficulty in prevent- 

 ing sheep from springing over the dykes and hedges 



