202 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



place. In the twelfth chapter of Genesis it is said that 

 Abraham had "sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and 

 men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and 

 camels." Some other animals were more obstinate, 

 too proud or too self-willed to submit to his rule or 

 clann hia protection. Of these we may mention the 

 horse and the hog, neither of which occupy a place 

 in history for a long time afterward. The early do- 

 mestication of animals seems to have been to fur- 

 nish a supply of food ; and in the patriarchal ages 

 and countries, milk was, as it is now, the principal 

 means of subsistence. Flesh does not seem to have 

 been at this early period in general use as an article 

 of food; and though, on extraordmary occasions, a 

 lamb or a kid was slain, yet it is evident that flocks 

 and herds were more valued for their milk than their 

 meat. Clothing was plainly a secondary object with 

 the ancients. It is clear that, like Moore's Susan- 

 nah, they went " in very thin clothing, and but little 

 of it. " They approached the verge of nudity as near 

 as decency would permit; and the wool, and fine 

 linen, and ramskins died red, were all considered 

 more as articles of luxury than of necessity. 



But, whatever may once have been the value and 

 uses of sheep, it would now be difficult, if not impos- 

 sible, to find a substitute for them ; and as supplying 

 us with clothing, and furnishing a large portion of 

 animal food, they fully deserve the care and atten- 

 tion they receive. In our climate there seems no al- 

 ternative between the growing of wool and a cloth- 

 ing of skins ; and in some countries, particularly 

 England, the choice for the great mass of people lies 

 between total abstinence from flesh and a leg of 

 mutton. The use of mutton as food in this country 

 is rapidly increasing ; and the rearing of sheep that 

 shall combine the greatest quantity of flesh with the 

 best quality of wool, is receiving here, as in Europe, 

 more attention than formerly. That these proper- 

 ties can ever be rendered perfectly compatible, is 



