THE DOMESTIC SHEEP. 



prices for the desired animals chosen for the improvement 

 of their sheep. For a shepherd of the time of the Roman 

 Caesar Tiberius is recorded as giving a sum equivalent to 

 live hundred dollars for a ram of a noted breed, chosen from 

 out-.? ol the most noted flocks in the world at that time. 



Arid in more modern times we find that the kings and 

 emperors thought a present of a tine ram and a bunch of 



fx 



AFRICAN SHEEP. 



ewes from their high bred flocks, a worthy present to be 

 mack 1 or received. It was in this way that some of the first 

 of the Cotswold breed were brought into England as a gift 

 from the Spanish emperor to the English king several cen- 

 turies ago. Indeed we may thank the kings of England 

 very cordially for their enterprise in cultivating tint* breeding 

 sheep from the finest, by procuring the specimens from every 

 possible source, and by the strictest laws protecting the 

 native flocks from deterioration. 



Moreover we may take a hint and lesson from this period 

 of the history of the British sheep. For not only were the 

 sheep protected in the strictest manner, but so was the trade 

 in wool. Every art of the economist was invoked for the 

 protection of the woolen manufacture in England. It 

 was a felony, punishable by death, to export a sheep, and 

 the introduction of foreign woolen goods was entirely for- 

 bidden. At the same time everv skilled artisan who was 



