SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 125 



no argument to prove that it is also true in the pro- 

 duction of wholesome and nutritious meat. A generous 

 diet of rich and various food is required to keep up a 

 rapid and constant growth, and it is quick growth, 

 combined with good health, that makes the choicest 

 meat. I have been familiar with sheep-raising in 

 New England for many years, and although sheep do 

 pretty well on the rocky hills there, yet they are sub- 

 ject to a frightfully long list of diseases, every one of 

 which, however, is ascribed to local and not inherent 

 causes. The one great cause, exceeding all others in 

 the variety and extent of its evils, is the long-continued 

 rainy weather. The ground gets saturated with water, 

 the feet become soft and tender with the soaking, and 

 foot-disease is propagated by inoculation with surprising 

 rapidity. The fleece gets wet, and remaining so for 

 several days, keeps the animal enveloped in a steam- 

 bath ; this produces pustules, scab, tetter, and other 

 cutaneous diseases. Every thing and every place is 

 soaked and dripping with water during those long 

 storms, and the sheep are compelled to lie on the wet 

 ground, and contract colic, scours, stretchers, and other 

 bowel diseases. But here, on our hard, porous, gravelly 

 soil, in a bright, equable climate, a dry, bracing atmo- 

 sphere, having abundance of nutritious grasses and a 

 great variety of desirable food, the flocks will find 

 every circumstance contributing to their perfect growth 

 and development. This is such a country and climate 

 as they naturally inhabit. Their constitutions are 

 fitted to its peculiarities, and will produce here their 

 highest possibilities. There is no doubt that any breed 



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