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THE CULTURE OF SHEEP. 
GEN. CASSIUS M. CLAY. 
The sheep (Ovis) has been domesticated 
from the earliest times known to history. It 
is found on prehistoric monuments, aud was 
mingled in the personal representation of Ju¬ 
piter and Osiris, and other gods. The goat is 
near enough in structure to be classified by 
some naturalists as in the same genus as the 
sheep. It, however, does not bree d with the 
sheep, whose many marked varieties may 
suitably constitute a genus of themselves. 
The five prominent speciosare: Ovis Musimon. 
O. Ammon, O. tragelupbus, O. montana and 
O. aides, or domestic sheep. Of the 0 aries 
there is a vast number of varieties, hut the 
best are thought to have been, from England's 
large commerce, concentrated in the three 
Kingdoms of Great Britain. Of these the 
three favorite breeds are now the Merino, the 
Cots wold and the South Down. 
The wild sheep is provided with horns in 
both sexes; but being of no longer use in do¬ 
mestication, they have gradually disappeared, 
except iu the Merino and lower breeds. The 
sheep seems to flourish best in temperate 
climes, but is found iu almost all latitudes. 
In the least cultured state their skins are cov¬ 
ered with hair or wool mixed with longhair 
protruding through the wool; and the legs of 
all the genus are covered with hair, so are 
mostly the faces aud bellies. These parts 
beiug most exposed to abrasion in movement, 
wmuld not bo so well a ble to maintain wool, 
which trom its structure, is easily torn oil’. 
We may lay it down as a fact tliat culture 
diminishes the horns and the hair, as there 
seems to be a law of Nature that the things 
not needed to animal security are gradually 
lost. And in my owu experience of nearly a 
third of a century the wool has increased on 
the foreheads, the legs and 1x1 lies of my sheep. 
STRUCTURE. 
The sheep is a ruminant with double 
stomach and enlargement of the upper intes- 
tiue so as to appear to have more stomachs. 
The intestines are the longest of any known 
domestic animal; they are about 28 times as 
long as the whole body, hence sheep produce 
more flesh for the food consumed than any 
other animal. They have eight large teeth at 
maturity on the front of the lower jaw; none 
on the upper; and 12 molars on each jaw. 
This structure of t he sheep enables them to eat 
very short, grass, pressing it between the lower 
teeth even in the ground aud the gristlcd bone 
of the upper jaw; while the cow thrusts out 
the tongue on alternate sides and gathers in 
the grass; and the horse nipping it with both 
upper and lower jaw fronts cuts not so closely 
as the sheep. 
AGE OF HHKEP. 
As a general rule, animals live five times as 
long as the period of maturity; that is to say, 
if sheep mature in two years, they should live 
ten years: but they will go much above that. 
So man ought to live by the rule to an hundred 
years; aud he will when the laws of Nature 
shall lie better < ibserved from generation to gen¬ 
eration. The first year the sheep has eight small 
teeth, which at the end of that tune show two 
large teeth in the center, replacing two small 
ones; and so on, losing two small and gaming 
two large teeth until the mouth is full, with 
eight teeth at four years and upwards, for 1 
find that these results are only approximate. 
After a few years the teeth begin to wear away, 
and are finally lost, when the sheep, unless fed 
upon pulverized feed, must die. When sheep 
are bred simply for mutton at so much per 
pound, the old sheep should be culled aud 
fattened for the butcher. But with sheep 
having fancy prices if they have a lamb and 
die, they thus bring more than when fattened 
that year and sold to the butcher.’. 
EUROPEAN SPECIES. 
The most celebrated of the (O. aries) Euro¬ 
pean species, as l said, are the Merino, the 
South Down and the Cotswold. The Merino 
is traced to Spain and is supposed to be the 
principal domestic sheep of the most civilized 
THE RURAL fJEW-YORKER. 
MAY 48 
nations of antiquity. Brought from Spain to 
England, France and Germany, there are 
several families of the name, of which the 
Saxon is thought to have the finest fleece. It 
is French and English and Spanish Merinos 
mostly that are brought to America, and the 
Merino has best flourished iu the highlands of 
New England, The Merino which, more than 
twenty years ago, took the premium at the 
World’s Fair for fineness of wool, was brought 
by Mark Cockrell near Nashville, Tennessee, 
from Vermont. The probability is that this 
sheep and wool, us in the case of other breeds, 
would degenerate, in time, in Southern climes. 
The Cotswold seems to be now the favorite 
of all of the long-wooled breeds. It attains 
the largest, size, the Lincolns excepted, and 
has the long wool used in combing-wool manu¬ 
factures, but seems to be unfit, for mutton, as 
the meat is coarse and the Tat. “padded” or 
“patched,” as the butchers term it. The old 
saw, “the finer the wool the finer the mutton,” 
is approximately true. The Merino makes 
mutton of excellent flavor, but is deficient iu 
size, form and curly maturity. I know the 
long-wool breeders will dissent from me; yet 
though l have had long-w ools all around me for 
half a lifetime almost, I never bred them; but 
I have often eaten their meat, and I find it 
not fit for cultivated tastes. I now come to the 
SOUTH DOWNS 
which I have bred purely since 1855. My 
father bred only Merinos; but I preferred the 
South Down and I availed myself of the first 
importations of the Thornes, Jonathan and 
Samuel, of Dutchess County, New' York, and 
Mr. A. Alexander of Woodford County, Ken¬ 
tucky, who spared no pains or money in the 
selection, their importations being mostly 
from the flock of Jonas Welch, of England. 
They also imported the Duchess family of 
Short-horns, the best of t hat breed perhaps. 
The South-Downs excel in mutton, the flesh 
being well mixed with fat and lean and juicy, 
the meat being lurgely on the favorite parts. 
They are, too, hardy and of early maturity, 
I regard the Short-horn us the beef bullock; 
the Jerseys as the milk breed; and the Devons 
as best fitted for oxen. But the selection of 
them will depend upon climate, heavy and 
sparse feeding, etc. So the South Down is the 
“the Short-bom” of sheep. I have bred 
Short-horns for a half century, though not 
now selling them, as fancy stock, and to those 
used to that breed I may say that the same 
jwiints are desirable in both. I quote from 
the Complete Grazier, 1810, London, England: 
“ South Downs, faces and legs, gray; bones 
fine; neck long and small; low before; shoul¬ 
der high; light in the fore-quarter: sides brood; 
loi a tolerably good; Kick-bone rather too high; 
thigh full, and twist good; wool very fine and 
short, (the staple being from two to three in¬ 
ches iu length), weighing an average of two 
pounds and o-half per fleece, when killed at 
two years old. Flesh fine-grained and of ex¬ 
cellent flavor. Quick feeders. Constitution 
hardy aud vigorous: capable of great improve¬ 
ment, The South Down sheep are princi¬ 
pally bred on the dry chalky Downs of Sussex, 
whence thus valuable breed is gradually being 
introduced into various districts,” 
Now thus description of the South Down, 
given alxmt one hundred years ago, when 
the great improvements in cattle and other 
live stock took a new force in England is 
worthy of special analysis. First, as to color 
this sheep was gray on legs aud face: those im¬ 
ported by the Thornes and Alexander were 
grayish-mulatto, and Lord Walsingham’s pre¬ 
mium sheep of this breed at the last two Royal 
Agricultural Shows in England, were dark- 
faced and legged. During the time I have 
been breeding I have paid no regard to color, 
looking only at form, wool uud size. 1 have 
a colored English print, about forty years old 
of South Downs on their native heaths, and 
there the eight are represented as black-faced 
aud legged with the wool well down to the 
first joints of the legs, and a small tuft on 
their foreheads. So, judging from my ow n 
experience and what I can learn of other 
breeders, thase colors are the result of culture 
and selection, and have nothing to do with 
purity of blood. So in the pure Short-horns 
we have red, red-and-white, spotted, roan aud 
white. In a hundred years the South Downs 
have more than doubled in fleece, averaging, 
yearlings and older, five pounds and upwards, 
instead of two-and-one-half pounds. The 
weight of the old-time sheep Ls not given; but 
we have reason iu Comparing them w ith others 
whose weight we knew then aud know now, 
to believe that the modern South Downs have 
also more than doubled the old-time sort, iu 
weight. The nOcks instead el’ King “ limy 
aud small,” are short ami well tapered to suit 
the increased width of chest; shoulder Ivml 
not “ high.” They are not “ light iu the fore¬ 
quarter,” because, the vital organs lieing 
there, we have greatly increased the chest. In 
my carcasses cut into fore and hind quarters, 
with the neck cut short, the fore quarters weigh 
about two pounds more (including the first rib 
on each side) than the hind-quarters. The re¬ 
sult of this is that the SouthDown has more 
vitality, I believe, than any known domestic 
sheep. “Sides, broad,” and nOw ribs round. 
aud (jrop. “ Loin tolerably good,” now most 
excellent and very broad, so that the greatest, 
death-rate among my grown sheep is due to 
lying on their backs—on account of their broad 
loins and short, legs, they can’t turn over, and 
thus they die. “ Backbone rather too high,” 
now level as a plane. This shows what culture 
cau do. 
<2 l)C Ijcutismau. 
JOTTINGS AT KIRBY HOMESTEAD. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
Rye Meal for Hogs. 
The feeding of rye meal has given good sat¬ 
isfaction. Two Red Berkshire hogs wore 
butchered to-day and proved to be very fat.. 
They both turned the scales at a little more 
than 500 pounds. They never missed a meal, 
but for the last three weeks they ate but little 
compared to the quantity that it required 
earlier in the period of their fattening to sat¬ 
isfy their appetites. Four quarts of rye meal 
mixed with water, were all the breakfast and 
supper they wanted. In the middle of the day 
they only ate 20 ears of corn. Wo never 
killed fatter hogs nor ones which had been 
more successfully fattened. No food had been 
wasted, and their healthfulness had been 
apparently perfect. A Victoria pig weighing 
350 pounds was fed in the same tnauuner, aud 
was equally fat. I consider it a settled fact tliat 
rye meal is well adapted to fattening swine, 
and it is also a conclusive fact that it is better 
to give pigs a variety of food—a change of 
diet, w’hen fattening them. 1 do not think 
tliat, these hogs wore in the least feverish and 
their internal organs showed perfect hoalthful- 
ness. They were sold at nine cents u pound. 
My young store pigs have been fed for 
nearly two mouths on buckwheat bran mixed 
with water, with a change each day to a small 
amount of rye meal. They are growing 
rapidly and their coats are bright and glossy, 
showing that they are in a healthy condition. 
These experiments are valuable to mo and also 
prove that the notions of many people that 
rye and buckwheat are not adapted for animal 
food are erroneous. 
FEEDING FOR BEEF. 
The butcher said to-day that the oxen were 
growing very fast; In fact, he was astonished 
at the rapidity with which they had taken on 
flesh. They have nut been over-fed, which is 
too often the case in feeding cattle. I am sat¬ 
isfied from experience and observation that, as 
farmers generally feed, at least one-third of the 
meal given to the cattle is a dear waste so far 
as making flesh is concerned. It is too ex¬ 
pensive a way for me to add to the manure 
pile, and hence my oxen have been fed in a dif¬ 
ferent manner. It is a common custom to feed 
fattening cattle meal three times a day. I 
never feed but twice, as two meals are all they 
can fully digest. This thud meal, in my 
opinion, is thrown away, and, more than this, 
it disorganizes their stomachs, which must be 
injurious to them. It. is a popular idea that, if 
you cau only get. an animal to eat a large 
quantity of food it must necessarily grow all 
the faster; but it is not so. It is what it 
digests which makes the growth, and beyond 
this all excess of food is a detriment. The 
idea that a steer or an ox can digest 12 quarts 
of clear corn meal within 24 hours is absurd. 
My oxen are very large. They are now fed 
morning and night a peck each of the follow¬ 
ing mixture: one-quarter rye-meal, one-quur- 
ter linseed oil meal and two quarters buckwheat, 
bran—with half-a-bushel each of turnips. At 
rut they were only fed four quarts each at. 
a mess with a peck of turnips. Their feed was 
gradually increased up to tin* present quantity. 
This mixture of light and heavier food is all 
that they will thoroughly digest and assimi¬ 
late. There will be no further increase. They 
also get all the hay they will eat. They are 
kept in a warm box stable and are not fastened. 
Water is carried to them twice a day. I con¬ 
sider this to be the most economical and profit¬ 
able system in feeding cattle for making beef. 
CARDING STOCK. 
The old-fashioned card os a factor in making 
beef is seldom thought of. A daily carding 
is so important for the comfort and thrift of 
animals, especially for cattle while being 
fattened, that the rule is made imperative. It 
keeps the pores open, and the cattle from be¬ 
coming uneasy and restless. A young colt 
which had never boon handled was made so 
tame by its use, that it could lie approached in 
the yard and haltered without its attempting 
to get away. Calves can bo made docile iu 
the same way by gently carding them; and 
after a few trials they will crowd around 
anxious for their turn. By carding and 
blushing young heifers before eul ving, they are 
made so gentle that there will be no difficulty 
in milking them. A little time thus spent will 
save a great dealvf vexations effort iu trying 
to break them in when they become cows, 
n ALTKR-BREAKING. 
It is an easy task to tench a calf to lead, but 
almost an impossibility to make a cow follow 
the halter. They should lie tied at first in t he 
day-time while they can be watched for fear of 
accidents, and when they get used to this 
confinement, with a measure of meal iu 
one hand and the end of the halter in the 
other, they will soon learn to follow. A cow 
that is worth keeping on the farm should 
always be halter-broken. 
-M-«- 
Feeding Flax Seed. 
A quart of this or oil-cake at a single feed 
once or twice a week, as recommended for a 
horse on page 182 of the Rural, l should fear 
would be liable to scour the animal. It would 
be better to give half a pint only every day iu 
the evening mess of other meal or grain. 
There is no necessity for steeping or boiling 
the oil-meal, unless it comes in hard cakes. 
If it is in the form of fine meal, as usual, it is 
just as well to feed it uncooked in this state. 
But flax seed is so tine that a horse cannot 
masticate it properly; consequently it should 
be simmered or boiled to a jelly; then mixed 
with other meal and fed. Or it cau be ground 
iu a mixture of t wo quarts to the bushel of 
corn, oats and barley, ora bushel ol‘ any two 
of these mixed together. b. a. 
A Four-Footed Rooster. 
Here’s a credible and rare fact. A quadru¬ 
pedal rooster “ takes the rag;” for a person 
who lives at. Hoag’s—l was near writing 
Hoax’s—Corners, N. Y,, offers for sale “a 
four-legged Dominique rooster, a Spring 
chicken, which weighs four pounds.” This is 
a fine opportunity for improving the breed. 
By turning this rooster upside down, lie might 
become four feet high, which is just one foot 
longer thau a light Braluna Spring chickeu 
which I myself killed a few days ago, which 
weighed pounds aud measured from beak 
to toe precisely three feet. A threc-foot fowl 
comes pretty near a four-legged one. s. 
Breast-Strap. 
A cheap, handy aud good breast-strap can 
be made by taking a piece of old tug and at 
tacking a snap to each end. The suaps may 
lie held by strips of leather passing through 
the ends of the snaps on to the tug and there 
riveted. Two thicknesses of leather will 
do if tugs are not to be had, but. old tugs 
ure best, as the uoek-yoke ring will slip itself 
ou them better aud not jerk the horse so hard. 
It is easily taken off when not in use. I would 
not exchange this kind of a breast-strap for 
any I ever saw. W. C. Tillotson. 
CttimnxiLogicfil 
INSECT NOTES. 
PREPARING PYRKTHRt M FLOWERS FOR USE. 
Venturing the supposition that: the opera¬ 
tion of reducing the flower heads to powder 
may induce some of the recipients of the Ru¬ 
ral seed distribution to deem t he Pyretlnum 
seeds unavailable for practical use, even if 
they succeed in growing the plants, atten¬ 
tion may lx* called to the 1881-82 Report of the 
Department of Agriculture, page 78. Here is 
given a simple plan of pulverizing iu a mor¬ 
tar covered tightly with a leather with an ap¬ 
erture for the pestle. Sift the powder through 
a silk sieve. Furthermore, Professors Corn- 
stock, Hilgard ami Riley have experimented 
with the tea or decoction made of the flower 
heads, and they affirm that this is “the sim¬ 
plest, most economical and efficient method of 
application in all out-door uses.” 
THE CLOVER-LEAF BEETLE—PHYTONOMUS 
PUNCTATUS. 
The Herb Grazer of the Clover (Phytouomus 
puuetotus) is very abundant in Central New 
York, uud the larva* are now actively engaged 
in feeding on the leaves, as indeed they have 
been all Winter, under the snow or in the sun¬ 
shine. Time and again frozen in the ice and 
snow or half drowned during the thaws, they 
nevertheless maintained their existence amid 
the clover foliage, feeding whenever the sur¬ 
roundings and temperature should admit. I 
have awn them feeding ou protected, sunny 
slopes, even at the edge of thawing snow 
drifts, when at the same time my oars were 
beiug frozen by a fierce north wind. Thus it 
seems these anomalous insects seek out no hi¬ 
bernating retreat, for the Winter; ou the con¬ 
trary, they behave as if overtaken by unex¬ 
pected weather; their inherited habits iu their 
native clime of Central anti Southern Europe 
perhaps requiring no season of hibernation. 
The mature beetles are concealed under the 
foliage on the ground and may be suid to hi¬ 
bernate; yet they begin to lie astir iu snowy 
times lieforo other species. They survive un¬ 
til June, all the eggs having been deposited 
