INTRODUCTION. T 



apprehend that as our country grows older, and our systems of 

 husbandry more artificial, the same causes wUl be generated or 

 developed here which now produce many of the diseases of Europe 

 It is already found, for example, that as we treat our English slieep 

 according to English modes, maladies long known in England, but 

 not previously known here, and not yet known among our other 

 breeds of sheep, make their appearance among them. And some of 

 the feUest ovine maladies of Europe are liable, at any time, to be 

 introduced here by contagion. On the whole, I judged that it would 

 be erring, if at all, on the safer side, to give descriptions drawn from 

 the best existing sources of veterinary information of the symptoms 

 and treatment of all the maladies unlcnown in this country whict 

 have thus far been recognized and classified in Euroj)e. 



I have quoted somewhat freely from my own previous works on 

 Sheep. I could discover no objection to this, where my opmions 

 remain unchanged ; and where they are changed, omissions and, in a 

 few cases, slight alterations have been made to conform the quoted 

 statements to them. If occasional discrepancies are discoverable 

 between my present and former views, I have only to say, in explana- 

 tion, that further experience or further reflection has led me to change 

 my conclusions. 



A general history and description of all the breeds of sheep have 

 not been attempted in this volume. Those desirous of such information 

 are referred to Mr. Youatt's Work on Sheep. This unwearied 

 investigator and copious writer exhausted this field of research — and 

 he really left nothing, in what may be termed the literature of Sheep 

 Husbandry, to be performed by another. Those who have followed 

 him in the same field, have only repeated him; and these compilers 

 have generally been as destitute of his grace as of his erudition. 



I have alluded to all the distinct breeds of sheep which have, so 

 far as my knowledge extends, been introduced into the United States, 

 but I have particularly described only those leading and valuable ones 

 which now employ the attention of enlightened agriculturists. And 

 even in respect to these, no historic investigations have been indulged 

 in which do not appear to me to have a direct bearing on the modes 

 and means of their preservation or improvement. The province of 

 this work embraces purely practical concerns, and history and 

 disquisition are pertinent only so far as they throw a direct and 

 instructive light on those concerns. 



One of the gi-eatest and most insuperable diflBculties which I 

 have experienced in the prosecution of my labors arises from the 

 want of an established and systematic nomenclature to express the 

 various divisions of species. The designations, species, race, kind, 

 stock, breed, variety, family, etc., have been applied almost indiscrimi- 

 nately to the same divisions, as if the words were understood to be 

 synonymous. Even Mr. Youatt falls into this loose and careless use 

 of language. But unfortunately a conftision of terms can not but 

 produce a corresponding confusion of ideas, on a subject not without 

 intricacy, and in reference to distinctions Or lines of demarkation 

 which are frequently faint, and nearly always irregular and abounding 

 in exceptions. The breeder who aspires to be an improver, ought to 

 have clear ideas on this subject. Called upon early in the progress 



