24 Sheep-Farming 



modern sheep trace was an amalgamation of a num- 

 ber of domesticated wild types. At a very early 

 date, men maintained flocks and in some measure 

 directed their development by controlling the mat- 

 ings. The time that has elapsed since the first 

 recorded accounts of sheep husbandry is sufficient 

 to allow for the widest departures from the original 

 types. 



The successful management of sheep is based very 

 largely upon the significance of the fact that they 

 are by nature the inhabitants of only mountainous 

 areas. Their habitat is above that of other animals 

 and allows them a freedom of range with a wide 

 variety of plants to feed upon. The high altitudes 

 to which they are native insure dryness and freedom 

 from the numerous forms of parasites that abound 

 in damper soils, especially on those that are heavily 

 stocked. Even with the breeds that have been 

 developed for conditions that are the opposite of 

 those of the wild sheep, there is need of continued 

 care and watchfulness to offset the effects of the 

 unnatural environment. 



American sheep trace wholly to importations from 

 Europe, and that the stock of that continent had its 

 rise in Asia, there can be little doubt. The immense 

 mountain ranges of Central Asia seem to have been 

 the habitat of the sheep in its natural state. Many 

 of the Asiatic sheep are either short-tailed as is the 

 goat, fat-rumped, or else have long fat tails the weight 



