SHEEP. 67S 



and distinguished by spiral horns, bending outwards, are of a breed 

 believed by some writers, to have been originally introduced into 

 that kingdom from England. Mention is made, indeed, of two 

 varieties of Spanish sheep ; one of which is highly valued for the 

 fineness and quantity of the wool, while the fleece of the other is 

 of a very inferior quality. The greater part of the flocks in Spain 

 are of the former variety ; and the care with which they are ma- 

 naged, renders the business of the shepherd much more complex in 

 Spain, than in most other countries. The number.of sheep fed in 

 Spain is above four millions. In summer, the flocVs feed on the 

 mountains in the northern parts of the kingdom ; in winter, they 

 are conducted into the milder plains of Estremadura and Andalu 

 sia, and distributed into districts. A flock consists usually of about 

 ten thousand sheep, under the management of a head shepherd, 

 with fifty inferior shepherds, and as many dogs. In summer, the 

 sheep are made to eat a great quantity of salt. The rams are^ as 

 is usual in other places, kept in separate flocks, except during the 

 rutting time. This begins about the end of July ; and they are 

 then distributed about the ewes. The fleece of a ram frequently 

 weighs about five-and-twenty pounds ; that of a ewe scarce ever 

 more than five : but the wool of the ram is not equally fine with 

 that of the ewe. In the middle of September, the shepherds mark 

 the sheep of their flocks on the loins, with ochre, diluted in water. 

 This smearing with ochre not only distinguishes the sheep of dif- 

 ferent proprietors, but is also supposed to render the wool closer 

 and warmer, and to contribute to the preservation of the sheep's 

 health. The end of September is the period, about which the 

 flocks are conducted from the mountainous pastures, where they 

 have spent the summer, to milder and lower regions. The shep- 

 herds are careful to conduct each flock, if possible, to the same 

 pastures where it has fed in former winters. The lambs are pro- 

 duced early in the season, in consequence of the rams having been 

 admitted to the ewes about the end of July. In March, the lambs 

 are trimmed of a part of their tails, and the tips of their horns, and 

 marked on the nose with a hot iron ; and such of the males as are 

 not meant to be kept for rams, castrated, or at least incapacitated 

 for generation, by squeezing of the scrotum, till the spermatic ves- 

 sels are twisted like a rope. In April, the flocks are led back to 

 their summer pastures. In May, the fleeces are shorn : every 

 fleece contains three sorts of wool; the finest on the back and the 

 belly ; a second sort on the neck and the sides \ and on the breasts, 

 tol. t. 2 x 



