Essay on Sheep, 111 



'* food essential to the good regimen of the 

 '* woolled kind, I made other experiments upon 

 *' these animals, in order to know at what time 

 '* they should drink. 



" It is well known that they seldom drink 

 " when they feed upon fresh grass, but stand in 

 " want of water when fed on dry meat. Dif- 

 " ferent opinions are pursued as to the proper 

 ** time for watering them. In some countries 

 *' they are taken to water once or twice every 

 *^ day; in others not for one, two, three, four;, 

 ^' or even five days. By the following experi- 

 ** ments, I have endeavoured to ascertain which 

 " of all these regimens, so different from each 

 " other, is entitled to preference. 



'' I shut up in a stable, in the depth of win- 

 " ter, a small flock, of which all the sheep were 

 " marked with a number. They were kept, 

 " night and day, without being suflfered to quit 

 " it, and fed with a mixture of straw and of hay, 

 " without any other aliment. Each day a shep- 

 " herd carried in his arms, successively, some 

 " sheep out of the stable, to let them drink in 

 " my presence, out of a vessel guaged at dif- 

 *' ferent heights, and then took them back into 

 ^' the stable, when they had either drank or 

 "^ refused to drink. 



'^ By this method I knew how much water 



