CHAPTER XI 



Sheep Under Form Conditions 



The sheep is known to have been under domes- 

 tication longer than any other animal. Whether 

 it was originally one of the species of wild sheep 

 still found in uninhabited places, or whether it is 

 a descendant of one of the wild species now extinct 

 is an undecided question. It has been under the 

 control of man for so many generations that it has 

 lost all of the original wild animal characteristics, 

 and is the most helpless and incapable of self- 

 preservation of any of the domestic animals. Cer- 

 tain it is that long before the most remote legendary 

 and Biblical times, the sheep was thoroughly do- 

 mesticated, and was one of the most important 

 animals. In the western movement of settlement 

 across Europe and later across the Atlantic, this 

 animal has always been in the advance guard of 

 civilization. It was brought to America by Colum- 

 bus and subsequent Spanish explorers, and rapidly 

 obtained a foothold in the West Indies, Central and 

 South America and Florida. Later, the early Eng- 

 lish and Dutch settlers in New England and New 

 York brought numbers of sheep with them, with 

 the expectation of developing sheep growing in 

 their new colonies. Naturally, the Spanish im- 

 portations consisted of the fine wooled Merinos 

 which, at that time, made Spain famous as the 

 world's leader in the production of fine wool and 

 fabrics; while the sheep imported to the North 

 were of the large, coarse-wooled varieties from 

 England and the north of Europe. 



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