Management of Sheep. 



31 



sities of the animal, which are governed materially by the forma- 

 tion of the internal structure or frame ; for instance, when the 

 chest is contracted, the animal is restless, and the respirations are 

 more frequent than with the wide., open chest, which is the sure 

 guide to quietude, and consequently y^ii^'er respirations. 



But when the animal body is forced beyond its standard of 

 temperature, the result is proportionably unprofitable : the animal 

 laws being impeded. Nature withdraws her support, and the 

 animal body becomes at once artificial, ungovernable, and exposed 

 to every difficulty : the animal frequently sinks under the pres- 

 sure which has been caused by extreme feeding, or improper 

 ventilation when placed in sheds, as the exhalation of the animal 

 would enter into a state of decay^ or unite with the oxygen of the 

 air, and thus be again inhaled and conveyed to the lungs and in- 

 testines, the seat of all infirmities. Thus, having been supplied 

 with too great a stimulant, in the shape of food, for the amount of 

 oxygen inhaled^ the system becomes deranged, and the digestive 

 organs cease to perform their functions ; and as the temperature 

 of the body exceeds the standard of heat (see experiment No. 11), 

 so advances the danger of inflammation and apoplexy, which can 

 alone be stayed by cooling medicine, and by the animal being 

 gradually exposed to the free temperature of the air_, when, from 

 the additional oxygen received, combined with the exercise and 

 increased velocity of its respirations, the animal body is restored 

 to its standard of heat or health. Thus, to keep up the temperature 

 of the animal body for its required purposes, it is necessary to 

 supply food or warmth, according to the temperature of the situation. 

 The principle, therefore, is confined to this : At all times endeavour 

 to keep the animal body at an even temperature, which must be 

 adjusted as the seasons roll on, or as the soil and climate vary in 

 the different localities ; for instance, when sheep are kept up in 

 sheds during the winter, and intended to be kept on through the 

 summer, a corresponding temperature must be observed, or the 

 animal machine would cease to perform its fattening evolutions, 

 which is beautifully shown by the increasing fatigue represented 

 by the sheep to support his warm winter coat as the spring months 

 advance, and which nature directs should be cast off at the expira- 

 tion of its functions. Many breeders have a dread of clipping their 

 sheep early. Experience has taught me to consider the animal 

 first, which dictates the removal of the fleece w^hen the great 

 change of temperature takes place, as the animal loses flesh under 

 the sudden increased pressure of heat. By various experiments 

 carried on through the summer months to test the difference of 

 weight gathered by the different lots of sheep that had been fed 

 in the different degrees of heat during the previous winter, I found 

 that those sheep which had been kept the coolest increased most. 



