214 MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP. 



Spooner on the subject, with the examples he adduces, will 

 be quoted hereafter. 



The opponents of sheUcrs assert, without, however, ever 

 having made any experiments to decide positively, that they 

 tend to make sheep tender, induce disease, &c., which is 

 about as reasonable as it would be to contend that man phys- 

 ically degenerates by having a comfortable dwelling to protect 

 him from the cold inseparable from northern climates. But 

 before offering any philosophical reasons to sustain the ques- 

 tion of the necessity of shelters, the writer begs to obtrude 

 his own experience touching this matter, and if more space 

 is occupied than many think necessary, his apology must 

 be found in his belief that nothing is more conducive to the 

 health and thrift of sheep, and, consequently, profit to the 

 flock-master, and which he will endeavor to demonstrate. 



Until within the last ten years, the writer's flocks, like 

 thousands of others at the present time in this and other 

 States, were denied the benefits of shelters ; and the loss, 

 in proportion to the severity of winters, varied from five to 

 ten per cent. The diseases caused by their exposure were 

 scab, pelt-rot, dysentery, and colds, which caused an exces- 

 sive discharge of mucus from the nostrils, while many died 

 from no other cause, apparently, than sheer poverty of con- 

 dition. Since, however, his sheep have been protected, the 

 deaths have not exceeded one and a half per cent, in regard 

 to number, and if comparative value w^ere the standard, it 

 would not be considered of any moment, as the loss has been 

 mostly among diminutive spring lambs — so from bad nursing, 

 and old ewes which, from superiority of fleece or carcase, 

 were retained thus long, to breed from. If this is contrasted 

 with the per centage of loss before the resort to protection, 

 it will readily dispel the delusion that shelters enervate the 

 constitution of sheep, or are in any wise an inducing cause 

 of disease ; for, since protected, no epidemic has prevailed 

 among them, and disease of any kind is rare indeed, and only 

 occurring in individual cases. 



The next strong argument in favor of protection, is the 

 fact that it materially increases the weight of the fleece, as well 

 as improves its properties, which arises from the better con- 

 dition which it is the means of producing. 



All farmers are aware that in fattening swine, or other 

 animals, mildness of temperature is of paramount importance 

 to hasten the process — and why ? The philosopliical reason 



