The Shepherd's Manual 



CHAPTER I. 



THE SHEEP AS AN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT. 



From the earliest ages the sheep has been a source of profit to 

 mankind, and its keeping and rearing an important industry. 

 Abel, the second son of Adam, chose sheep-herding as his employ- 

 ment, and although his elder brother chose to cultivate the soil, 

 the pastoral life became the favored occupation of the human race 

 in its early periods, and the more toilsome tillage of the ground 

 was followed from necessity rather than from choice. With a 

 sparse population, a scarcity of labor, but at the same time an 

 ample territory, the cultivation of flocks became in early times the 

 readiest means of providing food and clothing, increasing the com- 

 forts of man and of accumulating transferable wealth. Although 

 at first sight it is a singular circumstance, yet on reflection it is 

 seen to be a necessity of the case that the territory upon which the 

 flocks of the ancient patriarchs were fed and tended, is still the 

 home of shepherds, and that there, for forty centuries, flocks have 

 wandered from pasture to pasture under the care of their nomadic 

 proprietors. Where the physical features of the country were 

 favorable to pasturage, there the first civilized occupation was that 

 of keeping sheep, and so it remains to this day. 



In view of its bearing upon the future of sheep husbandry in 

 the United States, it is important to remember this fact, that where 

 peculiarly favorable physical features of the country were present, 

 and the shepherd occupied the land, there the shepherd and his 

 flock retain possession until this day. Thus, at the time of the 

 conquest of Spain by the ancient Romans, that country was cele- 

 brated for its flocks and the quality of its wool, and to-day the 



