AND H O H T I C V L T U R A L REGIS T i: R . 



PUDLISHKD BV JOSEPH BRECK i CO., NO. 62 NOUTH M.VIIKKT STllKET, (Aobicultuhal Wabeiiohb*.) -Al.r.EN I'UTNAM, HlJlTOll. 



OL. XX.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 15, 1841. 



[BO. aft 



N. E. FARMER. 



SHEEP. 



Wc would very gladly favor tlio farmers of the 

 Icrior with more inronnalion relative to sheep 

 an we have heretofore given, if our correspon- 



nt« would help us. In the immediate vicinity of 

 oston, sheep are seldom found upon our farms. 



may be as well for us to acknowledge frankly 

 at we know nothing about them, excepting what 

 ttle we may have derived from books. But while 

 e are unable to furnish any thing upon this topic 

 om our own experience or observation, we will 

 iry cheerfully publish the thoughts and opinions 

 ■ others. 



Mention has already been made in our pages of 

 " Treatise upon Sheep," by Ambrose Blacklock, 



I American edition of which can be iiad at the 

 x>kstores of Boston and Now York. As far as 



are competent to judge, it is a work of merit 

 ^e give below an extract from its pages relative 



the feeding of sheep upon turnips — for while 

 le English customs dificr so mucli from ours that 

 lany of his remarks will be useless here, he throws 



many other general remarks which may be use- 

 il on this side of the Atlantic : — 



"The fattening of sheep on turnips is muchpro- 

 lOted by their having access to a grass field, more 

 pecially if it happen to contain whins or heatlier. 

 is from want of attention to this that sheep are 

 liable to disease when eating turnips, for, apart 

 am the benefit that accrues to them from a dry 

 kir, they are enabled to turn their food to bettor 

 Bcount when consuming bitter herbs. It is no 

 noaual thing fur turnip-fed sheep and cattle to 

 soonie quite lean, as the farmers say, 'almost 

 the lifting,' for no other reason than that they 

 ,»e been confined too strictly to one article of 

 let They have been denied access to plants 

 antaining of all things the one most necessary for 

 le maintenance ot their health — hitter extractive 

 latter — as it is called by chemists — without a due 

 niportion of which the most nutritious substances 

 lonot be turned to account 'As an essential in- 

 vdient in the provender of herbivorous animals, 

 may, I think, be admitted as a fact, that its im- 

 Dltance is tn nn inverse ratio with the nutritive 

 »wera of the food.' Thus accounting for the 

 ingth of time that sheep will continue to thrive 

 a turnips alone. 

 "With all the advantages, however, which ac- 

 rue to the sheep when on turnips, from the quan- 

 ly of nutritive matter which these roots contain, 

 progress when restricted tn them frequently 

 ills very far short of the expectations of the own- 

 ;. In the greater number of instances, also, far- 

 >era are unable to account for their want of suc- 

 iSB in this department, so that I may be excused 



II endeavoring to point out, at some length, the 

 uaes of their failure. To proceed : — 



"The point in sheep management in which our 

 innera are most deficient, is turnip-feeding; one 

 ipon which most will pique themselves as being 

 lerfect, though, speaking guardedly, hardly one 



man in twenty understands the rudimentary princi- 

 ples on which sheep-feeding should bo conducted. 

 They are unacquainted with the habits of the wild 

 animal, and, unlike any other class of men, interest 

 themselves little in the fundainenlnl study of their 

 calling. There is not a showman, or a bird-fan- 

 cier but knows to a tittle the peculinritii's of the 

 creature that ho has in charge, and endeavors, to 

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

 instincts crave. Noi so, however, with the Riore- 

 farmer. He cares not to inquire whetlior the sheep 

 is naturally calculated to subsist on one kind of 

 nutriment ; and if so, whether they will, when left 

 to tlie exercise of instinct, resort to turnips of their 

 own accord ; whether the sheep is usually restrict- 

 ed to confined localities, similar to our fields, or is 

 the unrestrained rover over an extensive pasture. 

 Yet it is from investigations of this kind that wc 

 are to derive our mode of treating sheep, and are 

 to form plans beneficial to ourselves, from their be- 

 ing, 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 precipitous in 

 surface, and scantily supplied with herbage ; con- 

 sequently, 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 deductions from these observations are 

 correct. Sheep, in fact, consume a greater number 

 of plants than any other domestic onimal. liinnip- 

 us, in examining into this subject, found by offer- 

 ing fresh plants to such animals, in the ordinary 

 mode of feeding, that horses ate 262 species, and 

 refused 212 ; cattle ate 270 species, and refused 

 218; while sheep took 387 species, and only re- 

 fused HI. We find, too, great difliculty in pre- 

 venting sheep from springing over the dykes and 

 hedges that we place as boundaries to their ram- 

 bling habits, yet how seldom do we see the true 

 cause of their determination to sot them at defi- 

 ance. We may partly account for it by consider- 

 ing their analogy to the goat, and their propensity 

 to scale rugged eminences ; but I think these move- 

 ments rather indicate an anxiety to change a pas- 

 ture already exhausted of variety, for fresh fields, 

 and herbage abounding in that miscellaneous pro- 

 vision which nature apparently reckons essential 

 for them. Shepherds own as much, and will \g]\ 

 you that frequent change of pasturo is the aoul of 

 sheep husbandry, though they see no ycason why 

 sheep should not be kept for many su^essive weeks 

 on a patch of turnips. They aclmit the necessity 

 of a frequent shifting in the one case, hut deny it 

 in the other. Magondie, a celebrated French 

 physiologist, has shown by experiment, that it is 

 impossible to keep an animal in a healthy state 

 longer than six weeks on one article of diet, death 

 frequently taking place before even the end of that 

 period : but our sheep farmers, in happy ignorance 

 of the fact, confine their flocks for months to tur- 

 nips only. And what, may I ask them, is the con- 

 sequence of the practice ? Why, that it ia not un- 



usual to meet witli «liecp owners who loao ut Irani 

 one out of every fifteen, and all owing, ns mar easi- 

 ly be proved, to this mode of maiiugeincnt. In the 

 first place, the turnip is a kind of food entirvly (or- 

 eign to.ihe nature of till! shi'op. nnd one to whitli 

 at first they evince great repu(,Miance. There arc 

 many varieties of sheep incapable of feeding on 

 turnips, owin;; to the form of the fnco, the upper 

 jaw projecting considerably past the lower, hinder- 

 ing the chisel-shaped teeth from being brought to 

 bear upon the root. Nono of our British breeds 

 certainly have this as a regular feature, nevcrthe- 

 ess they are lialile to it ; and there are few far- 

 mers that have not, several times in their lives, met 

 ith grun-mnutUed sheep, as they are called in 

 Scotlind, from their profile resembling that of the 

 pig, and suiting them for poking in tho eartli, rath- 

 er than for rating in the usual way. Again, if the 

 structure of the sheep's mouth proves that it is not 

 adapted for eating turnips, the composition of the 

 turnip no less satisfactorily shows that it is not 

 calculated as food for the sheep. Bitterness is es- 

 sentially necessary in the food of all herbivorous 

 animals; without it, indeed, they sooner or later 

 fall into ill health. This property i.s shown by 

 chemists to reside in the extractive matter o'" plants, 

 which has, therefore, been called hitter titrnclivc. 

 The quantity is al.xo found to be in the inverse ra- 

 tio of the nutritive powers of the plant; that is to 

 say, where the plant abounds in alimentary Miiuler, 

 the proportion of bitter extractive is small, cornpsr- 

 ed with what it is where the former is deficient. 

 Turnips contain a large quantity of matter capable 

 of affording nourishment to the body, but they 

 yield little or none of the bitter principle. In rc)n- 

 sequence of this, sheep acquire fat rapidly for a 

 time, when placed on turnips; but, experiencing a 

 want of the medicinal bitter, begin with equal ra- 

 pidity to lose the advantages they so recently gain- 

 ed. Their appetite becomes depraved, and, from, 

 being shutout from access to the stomachic intend- 

 ed for them by nature, they take to devouring earth 

 or any substance capable of serving as a substitute 

 for it 'With regard to the natural use of bitter 

 extractive, it may be laid down as a truth, that it 

 stimulates ih.e stomach, corrects putrefying and 

 unwholesome nutrir;,ent, promotes lardy digestion, 

 iricreases tl.e nutritive powers of those vegetable^ 

 Bubst-^nces to which it is united, and furnishes a 

 "natural remedy for the deranged functions of the 

 stomach in particular, and through the sympathetic- 

 niedi-im of that organ, for the atony of remote parts 

 in general.' All, indeed, concur in scttin; a high 

 value on tWs constituent of plants— all, with the 

 exception of those whose interests are most deeply 

 concerned in a knowledge of its importance. Far- 

 mers, in genei dJ, cannot perceive the utility of at- 

 tending to concerns apparently so triHing, though 

 in the n,frht cjndvl't of these they depend material- 

 ly forsr.cce^s. Say, I have known man argmng.. 

 that i„ sir weeks they have pi^on ordinary sheep 

 an -excellent coating of fat, by keeping them oa 

 »"• ni'. ft only ; tlw»g''. °n ^l'**^ '"''"'''[ being made 

 ' nto the nature of the field in which they l^d beeq.. 



,percpa,i^ h- '''-y^ *"^"^'^°"' '"' ^'' "'' 



