318 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



rude, roving nations of the East, they are employed in carry- 

 ing burthens. Their milk is generally used by the uncivili- 

 zed, and to some extent, by the refined nations of Europe, not 

 only as a beverage, but for making into cheese, butter and 

 curds. Job refers to its use, as do Isaiah and other of the 

 Old Testament writers. Most of the Greek and Roman 

 writers describe its general use and manufacture. The ewe's 

 milk scarcely differs in appearance from that of the cow, but 

 is generally thicker, and yields a pale, yellowish butter, that 

 is always soft, and soon becomes rancid. Culley remarks, 

 " The cheese is exceedingly pungent, and for that reason is 

 preferred by many, to that from the cow." In Wales, it is 

 mixed with that of the dairy, and makes a tart, palatable 

 cheese. We have never seen it appropriated for dairy pur- 

 poses in the United States, except by a few Welsh and High- 

 land emigrants. The sheep is frequently employed in the 

 dairy regions of this country, at the tread-mill or horizontal 

 wheel, to pump the water, churn the milk, or perform other 

 light domestic work. 



The dignity and importance of the shepherd's vocation 

 have ever been conspicuous. Abel, the supposed twin-brother 

 of the first-born of the human race, was a "keeper of sheep ;" 

 and from this it may be fairly inferred, that there is no ani- 

 mal, which has so long been under the immediate control of 

 man. Abraham and his descendants, as well as most of the 

 ancient patriarchs, were shepherds. Job had 1 4,000 sheep. 

 It is said of Rachel, the favored mother of the Jewish race, 

 " she came with her father's sheep, for she kept them." The 

 seven daughters of the priest of Midian, " came and drew 

 water for their father's flocks." Moses, the statesman and law- 

 giver, who " was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, 

 kept the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law ;" and David, the 

 future monarch of Israel, the hero, poet, and divine, was a 

 keeper of sheep. It was to shepherds, while " abiding in the 

 field; keeping watch over their flocks by night,", that the 

 birth of the Savior was announced. The root of the Hebrew 

 name for sheep, signifies truitfulness, abundance, plenty ; as 

 indicating the blessings they were destined to confer on the 

 human race. With the sacred writers, they were tho cho- 

 sen symbol of purity and the gentler virtues ; they were the 

 victims of propitiatory sacrifices ; and finally they became the 

 type of redemption to fallen man. These may not be conside- 

 red accidental allusions in a book, whose every feature is full 

 of design. Nor has the sheep been less the subject of eulogy 



