134 THE DOMESTIC SHEEP. 



Quantity and kind of food needed, the sheep becomes thin, 

 or if the carcass grows the fleece does not. 



It has been shown previously in this chapter how the 

 wool of a sheep is made up, of so much nitrogen, especially. 

 This is the chief element, as has been said of the protein of 

 the food. It is the fact, that in the nutrition of an animal, 

 the elements of the food go first to sustain the vital func- 

 tions, for an animal will live although it loses flesh and 

 becomes thin and poor. Thus the needs for life, the vital life, 

 will be supplied first, and then the secondary product the 

 flesh is provided for, and last of all the fleece. Then fat is 

 deposited in the tissues, and on the inside first, and the sur- 

 plus is laid on the carcass under the skin. Thus it is that 

 the protein of the food is the main element for the full nutri- 

 tion of the sheep. And in choosing foods those most rich in 

 this element are first called for. 



No animal will fatten except on the surplus nutriment 

 supplied to it in the food. Fat is laid up in an animal as a 

 source of subsistence in case of need, to be drawn upon when 

 the food is not in full supply. This is the well known 

 case in the hibernating animals, who hide in burrows un- 

 derground during the Winter, and live without food, as is 

 the common saying as to bears, who are alleged by some 

 jocular individuals to live through the Winter by sucking 

 their paws. While this is not supposable as a process of nu- 

 trition, yet they are well known to feed voraciously on the 

 nuts of the woods, and hide in the warmest covert to be 

 found in the cold weather, coming out in the spring thin and 

 poor in flesh, and devoid of fat. Thus it is that the surplus 

 of the late Summer's food is expended in laying fat, on the 

 inside chiefly, but as well on the outside, for fat is an excel- 

 lent non-conductor of heat, and thus a,cts as a most useful 

 blanket around the sleeping animal, which taking no exer- 

 cise wastes little of its substance, and using up the surplus 

 fat exists comfortably during its several months of hiber- 

 nation. Thus the fall months are naturally the best for 

 the fattening of sheep, who, laying up fat, wi-H. not waste the 

 surplus food in the production of heat, and in so far as they 

 are well sheltered from the cold, and the fleece having made 

 a good growth up to this time, the sheep fatten quickly. But 



