THE GENESEE FAKMER 



311 



aud however plausible may be the deductions drawn 

 from them, can never overturn the established laws 

 of nature, on which the system of house-feeding in 

 feeding-boxes is based. For examp[e, it is a well- 

 authenticated fact, that the temperature of the body 

 of the sheep is the same from the poles to the equa- 

 tor, while its position with reference to external tem- 

 perature, and therefore its natural ability to keep this 

 degree of heat, is very diflerent in every degree of 

 latitude, if equally exposed in the open air ; hence 

 the quantity of food consumed must be proportionally 

 different, to maintain the animal system at this uniform 

 degree of temperature. In this respect, the radiation 

 of heat from the body of the sheep is not different 

 from that from the body of man ; and we know that 

 when exposed in polar regions our sailors consume a 

 larger quantity of food, with all the extra clothing 

 which they wear ; while, as Liebiq observes, "some 

 hunting and fishing tribes will with ease consume ten 

 pounds of fish or flesh, and perhaps a dozen tallow 

 caudles, daily." Now, experiments can never prove 

 that the sheep consumes less food out-doors, exposed 

 to the inclemency of our winters, than they do when 

 sheltered in-doors, other things being equal, but the 

 contrary; so that if they eat equal quantities, the lat- 

 ter must increase faster in weight, or there must exist 

 some peculiar cause sufficient to account for the con- 

 trary, such as an inferior quality of food, irregularity 

 in feeding, excitement, «Se:c. 



In recording experiments of this kind, too little at- 

 tention, we are afraid, has been paid to the constitu- 

 tion of the sheep; while habits acquired from peculiar 

 treatment, at variance with its original constitution, 

 have been mistaken for natural chai'acteristics, as the 

 following observations will show: 



In the first place — from the gaseous matter emitted 

 from its body being more fetid, and from its dung and 

 urine being more liable to give off" volatile and offen- 

 sive matter, and from the quantity of pure air con- 

 sumed for respiration, and the capillary action of the 

 skin being greater — the sheep requires a larger feeding- 

 box in proportion to its size than the ox. The dif- 

 ference in the smell of the two, may comince any 

 ohe of the soundness of this conclusion. Instead, 

 therefore, of being low, as is generally the case, the 

 roof of the feeding-box should be lofty, as well as the 

 box itself sufficiently large below, so as to procm-e 

 proper ventilation. Crowded pens and low roofs are 

 incompatible witlj this, summer and winter, often 

 creating stagnant volumes of heated air in the former 

 season — in the latter currents of cold air, worse than 

 the extremes experienced in the open field. Not 

 only does the sheep require a gi-eater abundance of 

 pm-e air than the ox, but it also requires a dryer bed, 

 to avoid foot-rot and other evils experienced from 

 wetness — a demand almost impossible to be complied 

 with, save in the feeding-box alone; for in open yards 

 and sheds, in rainy weather, from being exposed to 

 the full exciting influence ot light, with all that is 

 passing around, and from being more agile^ and re- 

 quiring a larger amount of exercise for health, the 

 the whole pen is kept continually on the move ; so 

 that, however well littered it may have been at night, 

 long before morning all is a puddle, worse than offen- 

 sive to the fine senses of the sheep — consequently 

 when any of the pen attempt to confine themselves 



under cover, and to lie down, the stench becomes in- 

 tolerable, so that preference is generally given to the 

 outside. In this position their skins become wet and 

 their feet tender. 



Again, conclusions relative to confinement, " roving 

 disposition," and economy and expense of house- 

 feeding, are generally vague and unsatisfactory ; for 

 confinement is but an expression of degree, sheep in 

 all cases being confined to their mountain walks, tlieir 

 lowland pastures, or enclosures of some kind or other, 

 a.s open yards or feeding-boxes; and the fact that the 

 Southdown (one of the most timid, shy and cautious 

 of all our breeds) thrives best, and pays it keep the 

 best, when confined in the feeding-box," is a practical 

 refutation of all the objections here involved. " Art 

 may succeed," say our objectors, "in rearing and fat- 

 tening the Southdown, Leicester, and such breeds, in 

 properly-ventilated feeding-boxes ; but the natural 

 system only suits the roving disposition of the Che- 

 viot and black-faced breeds, which comprise the large 

 flocks of our mountain walks. There feeding-boxes 

 could not be erected, for the want of capital ; while 

 in summer the system is impracticable, for the want 

 of food." Objections such as these are no doubt 

 plausible, but they will not bear a close investigation; 

 for may not the roving disposition be not a constitu- 

 tional characteristic, but one acquired from the pecu- 

 Har circumstances in which the large flocks in question 

 are placed ? being compeUed by necessity to walk a 

 certain daily round ui search of food — a round as 

 formal as the line of % railway — while self-preserva- 

 tion from eagles, ravens, foxes, polecats, &c., makes 

 them more gi-egarious in their habits, more timid, 

 shy and watchful than they otherwise would be. In 

 such positions the nervous system is kept continually 

 in an excited state, consequently requiring a larger 

 supply of food to maintain the system, especially in 

 the case of young sheep, who are startled by every 

 bird, bee or butterfly rising on the wing ; hence, in 

 some measure, no doubt, the slowness with which 

 they arrive at maturity, and the difficulty with which 

 they are fed — results which disappear as we remove 

 their causes; for the above breeds, if removed to the 

 enclosed pastures of the lowlands, fatten faster and 

 at an earlier age, becoming less gregarious in their 

 habits, less roving, shy and watchful. If we reduce 

 the enclosure by netting, shifting the nets as the dif- 

 ferent bi-akes become bare, a still greater improvement 

 is made ; or we might have quoted an older system 

 than either the field-fence or net, viz., the tether — a 

 practice with which our readers are doubtless fa- 

 miliar — one under which both the black-faced and 

 Cheviot breeds fatten with great rapidity, after a 

 week's experience that their confinement is for their 

 welfare. In short, Nature is always ready to adapt 

 herself to her present exigencies, and those habits 

 conducive to her welfare will be sooner acquired than 

 those of a different character. The black-faced sheep, 

 for instance, will sooner acquire the habits of the 

 Leicester than the Leicester those of the black-faced. 

 The other objections — that box-feeding during winter 

 unfits the mountain sheep for its walk during summer, 

 and that the system would not paj- — are equally un- 

 tenable ; for the healthiest sheep is obviously the 

 fittest for the hills at any season; while if the South- 

 down pays for house-feeding in the finer climate of 



