A Treatise on Sheep Part 1

A Treatise on Sheep.

by Ambrose Blacklock.

PREFACE.

The truth of the Greek proverb, that "_a great book is a great evil_,"

is no where more apparent than in the construction of works on agricultural concerns. Those who have attended to the subject well know, that the profitable management of live-stock is by far the most difficult branch of farming, as it is here that improvement is peculiarly tardy; and from this we might infer that authors would endeavour so to arrange and simplify their treatises as to enable every one to obtain the bearings of the study at the smallest possible expense and trouble. Such, however, is not the case. Many would appear to have done their best so to dilute and mystify the little which is known about the matter, that it is nearly impossible for any one, not gifted with more than ordinary power of application, to arrive at any thing like just conclusions. To avoid this error has been my object in the following pages. Such points only as are of real importance have been noticed; every thing having been rejected which could not admit of a practical application. For this reason, also, I have omitted all allusion to foreign _varieties_ of the sheep, an account of which is, in some similar works, made to occupy so large a s.p.a.ce. The general laws by which animal bodies are governed, and the changes to which they are rendered liable by their subserviency to man, are here--and for the first time as regards the sheep--gone into at considerable length. Too little value is in general attached to such inquiries; though, when endeavouring to improve a domesticated race, we must be perfectly aware, that without this species of knowledge we are like a s.h.i.+p at sea without the guiding aids of the rudder and the compa.s.s, and liable to be carried in the right or in the wrong direction only as chance directs.

In conclusion, I need make no apology for any defects that may appear in this little work, having done my best to make it useful to the farmer.

CASTLE STREET, DUMFRIES,

_July, 1838_.

THE SHEEP.

CHAPTER I.

HISTORY OF THE SHEEP.

(1.) _Origin of the Sheep._--As the origin of our domesticated animals has afforded scope for much curious speculation, so none have attracted a greater degree of attention in this respect than the sheep. Into these arguments, however, it would be absurd to enter; I shall therefore content myself with such opinions as are deemed the best.

Placed in the Cla.s.s Mammalia, and Order Ruminantia, the innumerable varieties at present existing may, according to Cuvier, whose tact in arranging animals is universally acknowledged, all be referred to four species--the Argali of Siberia, the Mouflon of Sardinia, the Mouflon of America, and the Mouflon of Africa--though to be rigidly accurate in natural distinctions he would refer them all to three, thereby excluding the third.

(2.) _The Argali of Siberia_ (_Ovis Ammon_) inhabits the mountains of Asia, where it attains the size of a fallow deer. The male has very large horns, with three rounded angles at the base, flattened in front, and striated transversely. The horns of the female are compressed, and hook-shaped. The hair is short in summer, and of a fawn-coloured grey; in winter it is thick, rigid, and of a reddish grey, with some white about the muzzle, throat, and under the belly.

The Mouflon of Sardinia (_Ovis Musimon_, Fig. 1. Pl. I.) differs from it only in its inferior size, and in the smallness of the horns of the female.

(3.) _The Mouflon of America_ (_Ovis Montana_) closely resembles the Argali, and is supposed by some to be identical with it, and to have crossed from Asia to America at Behring's Straits by means of ice.

(4.) _The Mouflon of Africa_ (_Ovis Tragelaphus_) is distinguished by its soft and reddish hair, by its short tail, and by a long mane hanging under the neck, and another at each ancle; it inhabits the rocky districts of Barbary, and has been observed in Egypt.

(5.) _British Breeds._--The breeds of our island, as they at present stand, may be divided into two kinds--long-woolled and short-woolled; the former embracing the Lincolns.h.i.+re, the Teeswater, the Dishley, or New Leicester, and the Devons.h.i.+re Nots; while the latter will include those of Dorset, Herefords.h.i.+re, and Suss.e.x, with the Cheviot, Mugg, and Black-faced variety.[1]

[1] Encyclopedia Britannica, 7th Edition, Article Agriculture.

(6). _The Lincolns.h.i.+re_ has no horns; the face is white; the carca.s.s long and thin; the legs thick, white, and rough; bones large; pelts thick; and the wool from 8 to 10 inches in length. The ewes weigh from 14 lbs. to 20 lbs. per quarter; and three-year old wethers 20 lbs. to 30 lbs. The fleece weighs from 8 lbs. to 14 lbs., and covers a coa.r.s.e-grained slow-feeding carca.s.s; so slow, indeed, at feeding, that it cannot be fattened at an early age, except upon rich land; but the breed is encouraged, from the great weight of wool that is shorn from them every year. It and its sub-varieties are extremely common in the English counties.

(7.) _The Teeswater_ sheep were originally bred from the same stock as the former, but have become different, from the size having received greater attention than the wool, which is inferior both in length and weight. They stand upon higher and finer boned legs, which support a firmer and heavier carca.s.s, much wider upon the back and sides, and afford a fatter and finer-grained mutton--the two-year-old wethers weighing from 25 lbs. to 30 lbs. per quarter. Marshall, in his work on Yorks.h.i.+re, remarks, that they are not so compact, nor so complete in their form, as the Leicesters.h.i.+re sheep; nevertheless, the excellency of their flesh and fatting quality is not doubted, and their wool still remains superior. For the banks of the Tees, or any other rich fat land, they are singularly excellent.

(8.) _The Dishley_, or _New Leicester_, is distinguished from other long-woolled breeds, by clean heads, straight broad flat backs, round bodies, small bones, thin pelts, and a disposition to fatten at an early age. But more of this hereafter. The weight of three-year-old ewes is from 18 lbs. to 26 lbs. per quarter; and of two-year old wethers from 20 lbs. to 30 lbs. The wool averages from 6 lbs. to 8 lbs., and is thought by some to be inferior in quality to that of Cheviot sheep; but, from being fully fed at all seasons, they yield great quant.i.ties of it. Fig. 1. Pl. III.

(9.) _The Devons.h.i.+re Nots_ form the fourth hornless variety of long-woolled sheep. Forty or fifty years ago, they ranked as middle-woolled sheep; but they now figure among the long-wools, under the name of Bamptons--their fleece having been lengthened, and rendered finer, by crossing with the Leicesters. There is yet, however, much room for improvement in these crosses. They have white faces and legs, the latter being short, and the bones large, while the necks are thick, the backs high, and the sides good. They approach in weight to the Leicester, but the wool is heavier and coa.r.s.er. In Devons.h.i.+re are found a white-faced and horned variety, which are known as the Exmoor kind, from the place of their nativity. Though delicate in bone, they are not good, having a narrow flat-sided carca.s.s; while the weight of the quarters and fleece is a third short of the former variety.

(10.) _The Dorsets.h.i.+re sheep_ are horned and white-faced, with a long thin carca.s.s, and high small white legs. Three-year-old wethers weigh from 16 lbs. to 20 lbs. a quarter; but the wool, being fine and short, weighs only from 3 lbs. to 4 lbs. a fleece. It is, however, amply compensated for by the mutton, which is of superior quality. The peculiar and most valuable property of this breed is the forwardness of the ewes, which take the ram at any period of the year, often lambing, so early as September or October. They are, on this account, extremely useful for supplying large towns with house-lamb at Christmas. Fig. 1, Pl. II.

(11.) _Herefords.h.i.+re_ or _Ryeland sheep_ have white legs and faces, and no horns. The wool grows close to the eyes. They are a small breed, suited to every market, weighing from 12 lbs. to 16 lbs.

a-quarter. The carca.s.s is tolerably well-formed, and the wool fine and short, each fleece weighing from 1-1/2 lb. to 2-1/2 lbs., rarely, however, exceeding 2 lbs. They were called _Ryeland_ sheep, from a district in the southern part of Herefords.h.i.+re being thought capable of growing nothing but rye. Though their figure is good, the back is not so level, nor the ribs so well rounded, as in the improved breeds.

They fatten easily, however, and arrive soon at maturity, though reckoned inferior in these respects to the Cheviot variety.

(12.) _The South Down_, like the Ryeland, are, from the delicacy of their const.i.tution, unadapted for bleak situations, but sufficiently hardy and active for a low country; their average weight is from 15 lbs. to 18 lbs. a-quarter; that of the fleece, which is very short and fine, being from 2-1/2 lbs. to 3 lbs. They are without horns, have grey faces and legs, a neck low set and small, and a breast neither wide nor deep; their mutton is fine in the grain, and of an excellent flavour, having been brought to great perfection by Mr Ellman of Glynd, and other intelligent breeders. They are mostly found in Suss.e.x, on dry chalky downs producing short fine herbage, and arrive early at maturity; in which respect they are equal to the Cheviot, though inferior to them in quant.i.ty of tallow. Formerly they would not take on fat till four years old; now they are always at market when about two years of age, and many are killed before that period. Fig.

2. Pl. II.

(13.) _The Cheviot Sheep_ have a bare head, with a long jaw, and white face, but no horns. Sometimes they have a shade of grey upon the nose, approaching to dark at the tip; at others, a tinge of lemon colour on the face, but these markings scarcely affect their value. The legs are clean, long, and small-boned, and covered with wool to the hough; but there is a sad want of depth at the breast, and of breadth both there and on the chine. A fat carca.s.s weighs from 12 lbs. to 18 lbs. per quarter, and a medium fleece about 3 lbs. The purest specimens of this breed are to be found on the Scotch side of the Cheviot hills, and on the high and stony mountain-farms which lie between that range and the source of the Teviot. These sheep are a capital mountain stock, provided the pasture resembles the Cheviot hills, in containing a good proportion of rich herbage. Fig. 2. Pl. III.

(14.) _Mugg Sheep._--"In this variety," says Dr Fleming, in his History of British Animals, "the face and legs are white, or rarely spotted with yellow, and the forehead covered with long wool. This is the native breed in Scotland, to the north of the Forth and Clyde.

They are of small size, and seldom weigh above 8 or 10 lbs. per quarter. Some tribes have horns; others are dest.i.tute of them, and they vary in the length of the tail. They may be considered as the stock of the numerous modern and valuable varieties, which are bred in the best cultivated districts. The Shetland sheep belongs to this kind. The fur consists of firm wool next the skin, with long coa.r.s.e hairs, indications of an inhabitant of an arctic climate."

(15.) _The Black-faced or Heath Sheep_ are known by their large spiral horns, wild-looking eyes, black legs and faces, with short firm carca.s.ses, covered by long coa.r.s.e wool, which weighs from 3 lbs. to 4 lbs. As the form of this sheep has lately been much improved, by inducing a short and round carca.s.s, they have acquired the name of _short_ sheep, in contradistinction to the Cheviots, which are termed long sheep. When three years old, they fatten well, affording excellent highly-flavoured mutton, and weighing from 10 lbs. to 16 lbs. a-quarter. They are the most valuable upland sheep in Britain, abounding in all the western counties of England and Scotland, and are now becoming great favourites in the London market. Fig. 1. Pl. IV.

(16.) _The Merino._--Though many foreign breeds have from time to time appeared in this country, yet almost all of them have been viewed merely as objects of curiosity, and, as such, have speedily been disregarded. Far different, however, was the reception of the Merinos.

Brought into England under the most favourable auspices, and placed at once under the fostering protection of royalty, their native merits could not but be speedily appreciated and diffused throughout the kingdom. They have received the name of _Merino_ from a peculiar buff or reddish hue of the countenance, and are supposed to have come originally from Africa; at least Marcus Columella, having seen a strange variety from that country exhibited at Rome, during some public games or shows, took them to his farm, and, having crossed them with the breeds of Tarentum, sent the offspring to Spain. There they throve remarkably, attracting the attention of other nations, to whom they were from time to time exported, and at present may be found in almost every part of the world.

Merinos were brought to England for the first time in 1788, but attracted little attention, owing to the want of rams. Lord Somerville went to Portugal in 1801, for the purpose of selecting such animals as appeared valuable, from uniting a good carca.s.s with a superior fleece, and he succeeded, notwithstanding the disturbed state of the country, in obtaining specimens, which called forth the praises of the shepherds, through whose travelling flocks they pa.s.sed. Public attention was attracted to them on the commencement of his Majesty's sales in 1804; and their distribution over the country was accomplished in 1811, by the formation of the princ.i.p.al landed proprietors and eminent breeders into a Merino Society.

The Merinos had much prejudice to encounter on being first brought before the public in 1804; but they soon rose in favour and value, and steadily progressed till the Merino Society was established, when, strange though it may appear, all these advantages were at once destroyed. This paradox may, perhaps, be explained, by supposing that the inst.i.tution of local committees, which immediately followed, allowed the enemies of the change, in distant parts of the kingdom, ample opportunity of striking at the scheme, now that it was entrusted, in many instances, to persons ill qualified for the task either of making converts, or retaining the advantages already gained.

The horns of the Merino are of large size, twisted spirally and extended laterally, approaching closely in these characters to the sheep of Mount Parna.s.sus, a specimen of which is delineated in the work by E. T. Bennett, on the Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society. The face has a characteristic velvety appearance, but the cheeks and forehead are disfigured by coa.r.s.e hair. The legs are long and small in the bone; the breast and back are narrow, the sides flat, and too much of the weight is expended on the coa.r.s.er parts. There is a peculiar looseness of skin beneath the throat, which is admired in Spain as denoting a tendency to weight and fineness of wool, though regarded in this country as a sign of a bad skin and want of apt.i.tude to fatten. The average weight of the fleece in Spain is, 8 lbs. from the ram, and 5 lbs. from the ewe. The abundance of the yolk enables the wool to detain all the filth which comes in contact with it, so much so, that by was.h.i.+ng the weight is diminished about three-fifths.

The fibre of the wool is finer than that of any other sheep, and the carca.s.s, when fat, averages from 12 lbs. to 16 lbs. a-quarter. They are quiet and tractable, and possessed of many good qualities, but they are liable to abortion, are bad nurses, and require a large supply of food, for which, owing to an unprofitable form, they yield no return. Fig. 2. Pl. IV.

The Merinos were at one time in great request in various countries, from a supposition that they would speedily supplant other breeds; but this has never been the case, as the animal soon degenerates when out of Spain, and is only valuable so far as giving rise to varieties, which are equal, if not superior to itself. Large profits were at first expected from their wool, but these were reduced to a trifle when the loss of weight, and fineness in the carca.s.s were taken into account. Mr Hose of Melton Mowbray, put a certain number of Leicester ewes to a ram of the same breed, and an equal number to a merino ram.

The result was, that the Leicester fleece weighed 7 lbs., and the one from the cross with the merino, 8 lbs.; and that the former brought in the market 1s. per lb., and the latter 1s. 6d., being a gain of 5s. on the fleece. The carca.s.s of the former, however, weighed 27 lbs. per quarter, and the latter only 25 lbs., being a loss of 5 lbs. on mutton. Much advantage may, however, be expected from our crosses with the Saxon merino, which is in every respect well suited to our notions of a fine animal, as it yields a good wool, and is little inferior in carca.s.s to some of our best breeds.

(17.) _Teeth of Sheep._--In common with the rest of the ruminating animals, sheep have eight incisors in the lower jaw, unopposed by any in the upper, a callous pad, which is subst.i.tuted, being attached to the distal end of the intermaxillarv bones. Between the incisors and molars, or grinding teeth, there is a vacant s.p.a.ce of about an inch and a half. There are twenty-four molars, six on each side of each jaw; their crowns are marked with two double crescents, the convexity of which is turned inwards in the upper, and outwards in the lower jaw. The lamb, when newly dropped, is devoid of incisor teeth, though the two central ones are occasionally above the gum even at this early period. When one month old, the first set of incisive teeth are complete. The two fore-teeth of the under jaw drop out at the end of the first year; six months after the two next to these are lost; and at the end of five years the teeth are all renewed. When the permanent teeth are fully grown, it is almost impossible to ascertain the age of the animal, as the soil, the texture of the provender, and the original form of the teeth, have all a greater or less influence over their durability.

(18.) _Distinctions between the Sheep and Goat._--Though a comparison of the most common domesticated breeds of sheep and goats, tends to confirm the broad distinctions drawn between them, yet these differences almost entirely disappear, when we attempt to define the characteristics of those races, which still exist in a wild state in various parts of both Continents, where it is so far impossible to determine the precise division to which they belong, that Cuvier holds them unworthy of a generic separation. Sheep and goats, in fact, agree in so many points as regards structure, form, stature, and habit, that were it not that sheep, according to that naturalist, have "their horns directed backwards, returning more or less forwards in a spiral manner, with a generally convex line of profile, and no beard," while the goats have "their horns directed upwards and backwards, their chins generally decorated with a long beard, and their line of profile almost always concave," there would hardly exist a difference worth the noting. Some writers place great reliance on the differences indicated by the different coverings of the animals, ascribing wool to the sheep, and hair to the goat, forgetting that most of the wild sheep, and some of the domesticated races, are covered with hair, while some goats, as those of Thibet and Angora, are remarkable for the fineness of their wool. Even supposing these distinctions to hold good, we have still to combat the fact, that _sheep and goats produce mongrels capable of reproduction_, a consideration sufficient of itself to prove, that the sheep and goat can never be made to form the types of separate genera.[2]

[2] For further information on this subject, see that excellent paper on the Natural History of the Sheep and Goat, by James Wilson, Esq. in No. IX. of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture.

(19.) _Horns of Sheep._--As the Chevrotains or Musks are distinguished, with the Camels, from other animals of this order by the absence of horns, so are sheep, oxen, goats, and antelopes, distinguished from the rest of the horned genera of the order, by the persistence of their frontal prolongations. The horn is an elastic sheath of _agglutinated hairs_, which appears within the first twelve months, though sometimes present at birth, and increases by layers, one being added every year, so that the age of a ram may be known by the number of rings. The ewes have commonly no horns, but only a protuberance in place of them. The horn is supported by, and serves to cover, a highly vascular prolongation of the frontal bone, and it is at its root, where large vessels, and nervous filaments are entering, that blows occasion so great agony to the animal, apart from the damage which the other bones sustain by the infliction of violence on so powerful a level.

(20.) _Structure of the Stomach._--The term ruminating, indicates the power possessed by this animal, in common with many others, of masticating its food a second time, by returning it to the mouth after a short maceration. This they are enabled to do, from the structure of the stomachs, or, more correctly speaking, stomach; as anatomists have now concluded, from all animals being constructed on one common principle, that ruminating animals are not possessed of four stomachs, as formerly supposed, but only of one, which they view as being divided into four compartments. In drawing precise conclusions, we are bound only to admit the existence of two compartments, the other two belonging properly to the gullet; and being equivalent to the cheek pouches of monkeys, or the crop and membranous stomach of birds, may be viewed as an apparatus designed to serve a nearly similar purpose (that of moistening and macerating the food); while the real stomach will cease to excite wonder, or puzzle the ignorant, on being contrasted with that of other animals, in many of which a division exists, and from which even the human stomach, though generally a single sac, is not always exempt,--Dr Knox, of Edinburgh, being in possession of one that resembles a pair of small globes joined by a narrow tube, and which, when taken from the body of a person who was advanced in life, bore every mark of soundness in texture, and must, therefore, have been congenital.

(21.) _Digestion._[3]--The food descends by the gullet after being partially crushed, into what is called the first stomach, or paunch, in Latin, _rumen_, or _ingluvies_, in which cavity are found those morbid concretions so much, and so superst.i.tiously, prized in the Eastern world, under the name of Bezoar stones; from this it pa.s.ses into the second, termed bonnet, king's hood, or honey-comb, in Latin _reticulum_, which is much smaller than the other, and receives its name from the inner coat being arranged into cells; here it is moistened, made into pellets, and, while the animal is at rest, impelled by the antiperistaltic motion of the tube to the mouth, and after undergoing a complete mastication, is returned through the gullet to the third stomach, or smallest compartment, which goes under the name of _omasum_, or many-plies, from its resembling a rolled up hedgehog, and sometimes from the longitudinal _laminae_ of its mucous membrane that of leaflet. The food remains but a short time in the omasum, proceeding into the fourth division, or obomasum, which in its structure, especially in that of the mucous, or inner membrane, is nearly allied to the same organ in the human being, and is, by the French, from its power of coagulating milk, called _caillette_. The last compartment is the largest of the four, so long as the animal continues to live on milk; but the paunch speedily surpa.s.ses it in magnitude when gra.s.s becomes the sole provision. The milk always pa.s.ses at once into the fourth stomach, there being no reason why it should be returned.

[3] See Figs. 2 and 3, Plate I. with their references.

The intestinal ca.n.a.l is long, commencing at the pylorus or lower opening of the stomach, and averaging from ninety to one hundred feet.

There are but few enlargements in the great intestines. The fat, like that of all ruminating animals, becomes, on cooling, hard and brittle.