PART I. 



HISTORY AND BREEDS. 



HISTORY. 



When commencing this volume it was not the author's inten- 

 tion to enter into the early history of the sheep, but upon second 

 thought it became clear that without something along that line this 

 work would be incomprehensive and incomplete. However, at best, 

 the treatment of this subject must be in a very condensed form. 



The sheep belongs to the genus ovis (signifying with or with- 

 out horns) and is a ruminant of the pair-toed section of hoofed 



Bearded or Barbary Sheep. Sydney Mail. 



animals. Naturalists agree that its origin is not traceable. The 

 oldest record of sheep is found in an account of the excavations 

 of the Swiss Lake Dwellings. In these records proof is found 

 that the people who inhabited the Lake Dwellings, and who be- 

 longed to the Neolithic Age, were good architects, well up in agri- 

 culture and stock raising, and that cattle, sheep and goats were 

 raised extensively by them and that they carried on a large busi- 

 ness in woolen cloths. Men of science give as their opinion that 

 the sheep existed before the creation of the human race. It 

 was found in India and China during the earliest stages of the 



