168 
TIIE CULTIVATOR. 
flesh; and that he may be able to do this with the least possible expendi¬ 
ture of food, and to extract the whole of the nutriment which the herbage 
contains, a provision common to all ruminants (as will hereafter be more 
fully explained) is made in the construction of the stomachs, and other 
parts of the digestive apparatus. As the first process by which the food 
is prepared for digestion, it is macerated for a considerable time in the 
paunch. The frequent and almost necessary consequence of the long 
continuance of the food in this stomach, exposed to the united influence 
of heat and moisture, will be the commencement of fermentation and de¬ 
composition, and the extrication of a considerable quantity of injurious 
gas. This often takes place, and many sheep are destroyed by the distension 
of the paunch caused by this extrication of gas. The process of fermenta¬ 
tion and decomposition is accompanied by the presence or development 
of an acescent principle. It has been stated that an elastic pad occupies 
the place of teeth in the upper jaw; aud that it is by a half biting and half 
tearing action that the sheep gathers his food: the necessary consequence 
is, that some of the grass, of harder construction than the rest, does not 
give way, but is torn up by the roots; a portion of the mould adheres to 
the roots, and is swallowed, and, all our soils containing more or less ab¬ 
sorbent or calcareous earth, the acid is neutralized, and, as it were, re¬ 
moved, as rapidly as it is formed; except in some extreme cases, attri¬ 
butable almost entirely to the neglect or thoughtlessness of the proprietor 
of the sheep. 
The teeth of the sheep are the same in number as in the mouth of the 
ox. There are eight incisor or cutting teeth in the fore part of the lower 
jaw, and six molars in each jaw above and below, and on either side.— 
The incisors are more admirably formed for the purpose of grazing than 
in the ox. The sheep bites closer than the ox; he was destined to live 
where the other would starve: he was designed in many places to follow 
the other, and to gather sufficient nourishment where the ox would be 
unable to crop a single blade. Two purposes are answered by this: all 
the nutriment that the land produces is gathered from it, and the pasture 
is made to produce more herbage than by any other means it could be 
forced to do. The sheep by his close bite not only loosens the roots of 
the grass, and disposes them to spread, but by cutting off the short suckers 
and sproutings—a wise provision of nature—causes the plant to throw out 
fresh, and more numerous, and stronger ones, and thus improves and in¬ 
creases the value of the crop. Nothing will more expeditiously or effectu¬ 
ally make a thick permanent pasture than its being occasionally and closely 
eaten down by sheep. 
In older to enable the sheep to bite thus close, the upper lip is deeply 
divided, and free from hair about the centre of it. 
The stalks of the common herbage ot the field, bitten thus closely as 
they are by the sheep, are harder and more fibrous than the portions that 
are divided and cropped by cattle; and not only so, but some breeds of 
sheep are destined to live, in part at least, on harder food than falls to the 
lot of cattle, as the different kinds of heath, or substances almost as diffi¬ 
cult to be broken off as the branches of the heath. The incisor teeth are 
evidently formed for browsing on these dense productions of the soil, 
which would otherwise be altogether useless and lost. The part of the 
tooth above the gum is not only, as in other animals, covered with ena¬ 
mel to enable it to bear and to preserve a sharpened edge, but the ena¬ 
mel on the upper part rises from the bone of the tooth nearly a quarter of 
an inch, and, presenting a convex surface outwards, and a concave one 
within, forms a little scoop or gouge capable of wonderful execution. He 
who will take the trouble to compare together the incisor teeth of cattle 
and of sheep—both ruminants—both by means of the half-cutting and 
half-tearing action, having the stomach, in which the process of macera¬ 
tion is going forward, abundantly supplied with the absorbent or alkaline 
earth—the one, however, destined to crop little more than the summit of 
the grass, and the other to go almost close to the roots, and occasionally 
to browse on harder food—will have a not uninteresting illustration of the 
manner in which every part of every animal is adapted to the situation in 
which he is placed, and the destiny he is to fulfil. The pad also is firmer 
and denser than in cattle, yet sufficiently elastic, so that it is in no danger 
of injury from the sharp chisels below, while the interposed substance is 
cut through with the greatest ease. 
The mouth of the lamb newly dropped, is either without incisor teeth, 
or it has two. The teeth rapidly succeed to each other, and before the 
animal is a month old he has the whole of the eight. They continue to 
grow with his growth, until he is about fourteen or sixteen months old. 
The accompanying cut, fig. 1, will give a fair representation of the 
mouth of a sheep at this age. Then, with the same previous process of 
diminution which was described in cattle, or carried to a still greater de¬ 
gree, the two central teeth are shed, and attain their full growth when 
the sheep is two years old. Fig. 2, gives a delineation of the mouth at 
this age. 
In examining a flock of sheep, however, there will often be very con¬ 
siderable difference in the teeth of the hogs, or the one-shears ; in some 
measure to be accounted for by a difference in the time of lambing, and 
likewise by the general health and vigor of the animal. There will also 
be a material difference in different flocks, attributable to the good or bad 
keep which they have had. 
Fig. 1. Fig. 3. Fig. 6. 
Those fed on good land, or otherwise well kept, will take the start of 
others that have been half-starved, and renew their teeth some months 
sooner than these. There are, however, exceptions to this; Mr. Price* 
says that a Romney Marsh teg was exhibited at the show fair at Ashford, 
weighing 15 stones,f and the largest ever shown there of that breed, and 
that had not one of his permanent broad teeth. 
There are also irregularities in the times of renewing the teeth, not to 
be accounted for by either of these circumstances; in fact, not to be ac¬ 
counted for by any known circumstance relating to the breed or the keep 
of the sheep. The same author remarks, that he has known tups have 
four broad and permanent teeth, when, according to their age, they ought 
to have had but two4 Mr. Culley, in his excellent work on “ Live 
Stock,” says—“A friend of mine and an eminent breeder, Mr. Charge, 
of Cleasby a few years ago showed a shearing tup at Richmond, in York¬ 
shire, for the premium given by the Agricultural Society there, which 
had six broad teeth; in consequence of which the judges rejected his tup, 
although confessedly the best sheep, because they believed him to be 
more than a shearing: however, Mr. Charge afterwards proved to their 
satisfaction that his tup was no more than a yearling.”§ Mr. Price, on 
the other hand, states that he “ once saw a yearling wether, which be¬ 
came quite fat with only one tooth, that had worked a cavity in the upper 
jaw, the corresponding central tooth having been accidentally lost.” 
The want of improvement in sheep which is occasionally observed, and 
which cannot be accounted for by any deficiency or change of food, may 
sometimes be justly attributed to the tenderness of the mouth when the 
permanent teeth are protruding through the gums. 
Between two and three years old the two next incisors are shed; and 
when the sheep is actually three years old the four central teeth are fully 
grown fsee fig. 3): at four years old he has six teeth fully grown (see fig. 
-i): and at five years old all the teeth are perfectly developed (see fig. 6.) 
This is one year before the horse or the ox can be said to be full mouthed. 
The sheep is a much shorter lived animal than the horse, and does not 
often attain the usual age of the ox. 
The careless examiner may sometimes be deceived with regard to the 
four-year-old mouth. He will see the teeth perfectly developed—no di¬ 
minutive ones at the sides, and the mouth apparently full; and then, with¬ 
out giving himself the trouble of counting the teeth, he will conclude that 
the sheep is five years old. A process of displacement, as well as of di¬ 
minution, has taken place here—the remaining outside milk teeth are not 
only shrunk to less than a fourth part of their original size, but the four-year- 
old teeth have grown before them and perfectly conceal them, unless the 
mouth is completely opened. Fig. 5 represents this deceptive appearance. 
After the permanent teeth have all appeared and are fully grown, there 
is no criterion as to the age of the sheep. In most cases the teeth remain 
sound for one or two years, and then, at uncertain intervals, either on-ac¬ 
count of the hard work in which they have been employed, or from the 
natural effect of age, they begin to loosen and fall out; or, by reason of 
their natural slenderness, they are broken off. When favorite ewes that 
have been kept for breeding begin, at six or seven years old, to lose con¬ 
dition, their mouths should be carefully examined. If any of the teeth are 
loose they should be extracted, and a chance given to the animal to show 
how far, by browsing early and late, s^p may be able to make up for the 
diminished number of her incisors. R will not unfrequently happen that 
ewes with broken teeth, and some with all the incisors gone, will keep 
pace in condition with the best in the flock; but they must be well taken 
care of in the winter, and, indeed, nursed to an extent that would scarcely 
answer the farmer’s purpose to adopt as a general rule, in order to pre¬ 
vent them from declining to such a degree as would make it very difficult 
aftwerards to fatten them for the butcher. It may certainly be taken as a 
general rule that when sheep become broken mouthed they begin to de¬ 
cline. 
* Price on Sheep Grazing, &e. p. 84. 
t The weights will all bo calculated according to the new regulation of 14 
lbs. to the stone. 
f Price on Sheep Grazing, &c. p. 83. § lb. 214, 
