1 6 MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



THE EWE IN CHEESE MAKING. 



In the earlier days of sheep keeping in Great Britain the milk- 

 ing of ewes and making of ewe cheese formed a part of the farm- 

 ing industry of the Cheviot Hills and border counties. The process 

 began about the time the lambs were taken from their dams and 

 continued from one to two months. The milking was done early 

 in the morning and was always performed by girls. The diary of 

 a Liddesdale farmer for October 3, 1749, contains the following 

 entry: "This day sold to Andrew Wilson, Hawick, 75 stone cheese 

 for which he is to pay me at Candlemas. I have no bill for it, 

 but only his receipt that he received so much. I think the price 

 will be 3s. 7d. a stone" (of 24 Ibs.). Toward the end of the 

 eighteenth century the price advanced 8s. per stone. Ewe cheese 

 was highly esteemed as a stomachic, as well as a relish. 



In richness sheep's milk surpasses that of any other farm 

 animal. The average proportion of solids of the milk of the 

 cow is about 12 per cent, while that of the sheep runs from 17 

 to 20 per cent. In regard to the butter fat content the milk of 

 the cow and the ewe show quite a difference, the average propor- 

 tion of the former being 3.5 to 3.75, while sheep's milk generally 

 yields from 6.0 to 7.0 per cent of fat. 



BRITISH BREEDS. 



With the exception of the Merino family the Tunis and the 

 Persian, the prominent breeds of sheep found in this country are 

 of British origin. It is claimed that no domestic breed of sheep 

 is indigenous to North America, although the Spanish Merino 

 has been very much improved since its introduction into this 

 country, and in its present state is as much an American produc- 

 tion as the Eambouillet is a production of France or Germany, 

 and is justly entitled to its title, "American Merino," "Delaine," 

 or whatever name it and its offshoots are known by today. The 

 Bureau of Animal Industry is at present turning its attention to 

 evolving a sheep for the west, in which it intends to incorporate 

 the good qualities of the mutton breeds with those of the wool 

 breeds. The Iowa Experiment Station has a similar work under 

 way. 



Comparisons of the various British breeds are attended with 

 considerable risk of serious criticism, therefore the author leaves 

 such an unthankful undertaking to other pens. England seems to 

 be a bee-hive of breeds, and many, perhaps most, of the different 

 count it's of that country have broods peculiarly their own. At a re- 

 cent meeting of the English National Sheep Breeders' Association 

 it w:i!? stated that twenty-one breeds of British sheep would be rep- 

 resented at the next show of the Royal Agricultural Society. This 

 does not complete the list, however, as several minor breeds, for 



