BOOK THE FOUKTH. 



ON THE BREEDING, REARING, AND FATTENING OF SHEEP. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY AND COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE DIFFERENT BREEDS 



OF BRITISH SHEEP. 



SO far as historical records extend, the sheep has always been 

 known in a state of domestication. Its fleece has provided cloth- 

 ing, and its flesh food, for man from the earliest times, and in all ages 

 of which we know anything the sheep has been recognised as property. 



The number of the varieties of sheep is remarkable, and is possibly in 

 some degree a consequence of human cultivation for untold generations, 

 under endless diversities of soil, climate, and circumstances. Natural- 

 ists differ widely in their classification. Some are content to divide 

 the sheep of the world into three species, viz. : (a) the Ovis Ammon or 

 argali, the wild sheep of Asia and America ; (6) the Ovis Musmon or 

 moufflon, found in southern Europe and northern Africa ; (c) the Ovis 

 Aries or domestic sheep which abounds in Europe. Other naturalists 

 treat as distinct varieties what under the foregoing classification are 

 considered as sub-varieties, and in this way as many as thirty-two 

 varieties are recorded, of which Europe has four, Asia fifteen, Africa 

 eleven, and America two. The European varieties are (a) the Merino 

 (Ovis Hispania) ; (6) the Common Sheep (Ovis rusticus) ; (c) the 

 Cretan sheep (Ovis strepsiceros) ; and (d) the Crimean sheep (Ovis 

 longicaudatus). In this work we are concerned mainly with the 

 " Common sheep," and, except for a reference to the Merino, it will be 

 unnecessary further to allude to other varieties. 



There is no doubt that sheep were found in a domesticated state in 

 England from the most remote periods of which we have any record, 

 and several of our earliest writers testify as to the value of the wool of 

 these original British sheep. Possibly, however, at the early periods 

 we refer to, only the parent stock existed, whence have gradually 

 arisen all those different breeds which divers crosses, and the effects 

 of care, cultivation, and locality, have handed down to us in their 

 present valuable forms. 



H H 



