1064 PRACTiqii OF AGRICVl^TURE. Pakt III. 



ference between one eighth at^dcneejixteenth Is yery considerable, and must certainly be easily perceived, 

 both by a good microscope, and in the cloth which is manui^ctured from such wool. In the latter method, 

 he adds, " it certainly has been perceived ; but I have hitherto had no opportunity of trying the difference 

 by the former. The fifth cross, as I have before observed, brings the Merino-Wilts wool to the same 

 standard as the fourth of the Merino Ilyeland." {Com. to the Board of Agr. vol. v. p. 458.) 



7234. In Hie lambing season, the Ryeland breed are usually cotted, because the new-born lambs are very 

 thinly covered with wool. As January was considered the best lambing season for the produce of the 

 cross. Dr. Parry found cotting was doubly necessary. Every night the flock were well sheltered ; and 

 they were allowed, in addition to the pasture which they could pick up in the day-time, linseed jelly, 

 ground oil-cake, or grains, cabbages, rouen, winter and spring vetches, and tares. Salt, he says, 1 never 

 gave to my flock but once, and that in the following way : A small field of lattermath, cut in September, 

 had been so often wetted, that I despaired of its ever being eaten. While it was putting into the rick, I 

 strewed some salt between the layers ; the consequence was, that cows and sheep greedily devoured it, 

 scarcely leaving a single blade. {Com. to the Board of Agr. vol. v. ]x 505.) 



7235. The shearing of the sheep was performed in the second week of June, and of the lambs at the end 

 of July, The finer 'fleeced lambs need not be shorn till the second season. Washing previously to shear- 

 ing Dr. Parry disapproves of; because the fleece is so thick, that when thoroughly soaked with water, it 

 is very long in drying ; and if the weatlier prove wet and cold, the sheep are evidently much incommoded j 

 he therefore recommends cleansing the wool, after being shorn, as in Spain. 



7236. The produce of wool, considered as the result of Dr. Parry's well conducted experiments, was 

 found to be 14 lbs, 14 oz. per acre, which at 3s. per lb. in the yolk throughout the fleece gives 2/. 4s. l^d. per 

 acre on land certainly not worth on an average 26a'. {See Comm. to the B. of Agriculture, vol. v.) 



72.37. Lord Somer utile's experiments may be considered as of equal, if not more importance than these 

 of Dr. Parry. Hi^s Lordship tried crosses with several short-woolled breeds, but was most successful with the 

 South Downs and Ryeland.s. Morris Birkbeck, a professional farmer of the first order, found that the 

 fleeces of the first cross between Merinos and South Downs, washed, are to the parent South Downs as 

 six to five in weight, and as three to two in value per pound, and believes that the improvement of the 

 wool may go on, without detriment to the carcass, until we shall obtain a breed of sheep with Spanish 

 fleeces and English constitutions ; but this must be the result of careful and judicious selection. 



7238. Merino flocks are now established in most districts oi the empire, and but few years can elapse 

 before their value to the farmer and the country be practically ascertained and evinced. (See Sir J. Banks 

 if^ Annals of Agriculture, Com. to B. of Agr. Bath Society's Papers, Duldin Society" s Transactions, The 

 Farmer's Magaxine, Farmei's Journal. Lord Somerville's and Dr. Parry's Tracts on Wool and Merinos, 

 Qjt4{VartQUS other works.) 



.J-jo'It buf>-' rt;! njijo j^Ti; to cw: lo 



w;i'^llo3 ^.is miou9 tfiSscT. VIII. Anatomu mid Physiology of Sheep. M .vioAd^n: J^ciV 



7939, The general structure of the sJwep resembles that of the ox very intinrtatfely. 

 Sheep however, like the ox, experience considerable variations in size, form, and qualities ; 

 resulting from the physical and moral agencies which tliey become exposed to, under 

 various climates : and also, as whether fostered by cultivation, or left to the natural 

 operations of nature around them. These circumstances have operated on even the 

 bony base of the machine, as we see in the formations of the three- horned breed (O^vis 

 polyc^rata Lin.), natives of the north ; in the spiral-horned (0. 5'trepsiceros I. in.), which 

 inliabit Wallachia; and the long-hoined (Capra A'mmo/i Lin.), which are found in tlie 

 countries bordering the Mediterranean : and which have been thought to be the parents 

 of the present cultivated British sheep. 



7240. Cultivation weakens the otherwise inherent aptitude to Tet&\n the original stamp of nature; and 

 we find, therefore, that by these means, the original form of the sheep has submitted to vast alterations. 

 We see some of them wholly without horns; we also find that the bony structure is otherwise subjected 

 to our command, by becoming much more slender, though more compact. Accidents are also laid hold 

 on by man to produce particular forms : thus a breed has been cultivated in America, called the ancort or 

 otter breed, remarkable for crooked and deformed legs ; which, by continued breeding from specimens 

 that presented this originally accidental deformity, is become now a fixed and permanent breed, valuable 

 for their incapacity to wander or climb. {Dwight.) The dunky, or wry-faced breed, is another instance 

 of accidental deformity cultivated into a permanent variety : as the monstrous rump of the Tartarian 

 sheep, and the over-grown tails of some breeds in Turkey, and the Cape of Good Hope, are similar 

 instances in the softer parts of the body. 



7241. The skeleton of the sheep presents an assemblage of bones, which bears a general resemblance to 

 that of the ox in number and direction. Like him, the head naturally is surmounted by horns springing 

 from the frontal bones. Like him, his frontal sinuses are large and open, and thus liable to the entrance 

 of insects. The skull bones are wide and extended ; his orbits are more lateral than central; and his 

 facial an^le is about thirty degrees. His vertebral column is the same as the ox, and his ribs also. The 

 extremities descend on the same construction, ending in a divided hoof. 



7242. The visceral and soft parts are but little dissimilar likewise. His brain is as one two-hundredth 

 to the whole body; and his cerebellum to the brain generally, as one to five. The pigment of the eye is 

 of a pale yellowish green, varying occasionally to a blue. The \iscera of the chest correspond with the 

 ox ; and those of the belly also, the stomachs being the same, and the economy of rumination not ciflfer- 

 ing. The liver, pincreas, and spleen are similar. The penis is taper, vesiculae semin^les wanting, and 

 prostrates two. ' 



7243. The wool qf the sheep is but a crisped hair ; and indeed in some foreign varieties, the outer cover- 

 ing is of long hair like that Qf o^m ; while in others, the hair and wool ate mixed. ' 



^m .bi'iii ^.jroyyi'.jL.! {Ijjnib'im.ixr ^ -^ .k>n ^i jl ,. jTifj ilodi 



-nr ,ff?.oR o'of J^Trt vo.dT q-kfa y^^^^' ^^' -Diseases of Sheep,,.,,, ^,.^.,^,^. ^^ ^.^^Vx 



7244. The diseases of sheep are numerous ; for these animals are now so highly culti- 

 vated that they may be regarded in some respects as artificial machines : and thusj as a 

 natural consequence, they are subjected to a variety of artificial defects or maladies. 



7245. The rot is a popular term among shepherds, and includes within its range diseases widely dif- 

 ferent We shall not, therefore, follow the custom of treating the different rots of sheep together; but wo 

 shall allow them to fall in their natural order, according to the plan pursued with the diseases of oxen. 



7246. The inliammatory and putrid fever, popularly known by the names highatii striking, or blood strik- 

 ing, does not differ materially from the same disease in oxen and cows ; and is in sheep also sometimes 

 epidemic ; appearing by panting, dulness, watery mucus from the nose and eyes ; and great redness of all 

 such parts as are usually white. 



7247. The red water. The inflammatory fever sometimes resolves itself into an universal secretion of 

 serum throughout all the cavities ; in which case, after a few days, the lymph tinged with blood will come 



