A Treatise on Sheep:

required among the bulk of mankind, so the want of them may be the less regretted, seeing it is possible to render even the intricacies of the study plain and simple, by an appeal t

f a population limited in regard to soil, and making every effort to remedy the want, by an economical doubling of the return for the usual outlay: for, while a tribe wanders at large, remaining at a part

g new is to be met with; yet, that does not rob our modern improvers of their merits, for though they deserve little as inventors, they are to be admired for that strength of mind, and determined perseverance, which enabled them to rouse their fellows from their lethargy, and compel them to become in turn, benefactors of their country, and themselves. The signs of a good ram are concisely laid down by Varro

s, and made agriculture the study and business of their lives. The former commenced his celebrated treatise on husbandry during the reigns of Tiberius, and Caligula, and appears to have

d few who devote to it the attention it requires. The first, in modern times, who arrived at any thing like eminence in this department, was Joseph Allom, of Clifton, who raised himself by dint of industry, from a ploughboy, and for a long time contrived to keep his methods secret, being supposed by many to have b

cy to acquire fat was the first quality to be looked to in an animal destined for the food of man; and on this, with him a fundamental principle, was based the whole of his proceedings. Different opinions will of course be held on the merits of the theory on which he acted but all must acknowledge, that we are indebted to his skill and experience, for the e

d with the management of the flock was left to chance, or at least to the guidance of farm-servants, with whom, of course, it could not be a matter of interest to select, or sort, suitable animals for the contin

hese animals as the undrained, and unsheltered parish of Eskdale-Muir, in Dumfriesshire. At last one William Bryden rented the farm of Aberlosk, and soon, by the original plan of dr

plant, or an animal, may resemble the rest of its species in chemical constitution, and in the number and situation of its organs, but is sure to differ from all in size, general configuration, and disposition of its parts: These shades of difference, endle

gallinaceous birds, the coxcombs of the forest. In this, as in every other department of nature, the most beautiful harmony, or, in other words, a union of what is pleasing to the eye, and suited for the comfort of the creature, every where prevails. The colour of an animal envelope is never at variance with the tints of surrounding objects. A painter, for example, would not place a flower or animal of brilliant hue amidst the monotonous aspect of an arctic landscape; neither would he picture the faintly-tinted beings of a polar latitude, as surrounded by the warm and flashy colouring characteristic of an oriental climate. As temperature, then, determines in a marked degree the colour and dimensions of every animal, such variations render the division of living beings into races and varieties, a matter of necessity. Thus all human beings belong only to o

imits, for bearing up against removal from their ordinary localities, and assuming a different cast, as the place of their exile may differ in degree

re; for though its natural situation as a wool-bearing animal, like that of man appears to be the wine countries, yet with him, it has spread to every quarter of the globe, becoming impressed at every change with some peculiarity, alterable only by a change of situation, and varying, we might almost affirm, with the wea

thout any inter-marriage with the Hindoos, assume the deep olive tint, little less dark than a negro, which seems natural to the climate." Buchanan also in his travels through the same country, alludes to a tribe of black Jews who have, in all probability, been settled in the district ever since the period of the captivity under Nebuchadnezzar, 3000 years ago, and who retain all the national peculiarities of their race, with the exception o

animals, how do they happen to have spread over a vast tract of country in spite of such extremes? Simply for the reason, that when an animal is left to the exercise of its own free will, and the dominion of its instincts, it will not subject itself to the danger of an extreme in any thing. It will not traverse several hundred miles in a single season, and thus expose itself to sudden changes. The natural dispersion of all animals is gradual, so that their constitutions are enabled, from the slowness of the transition, to accommodate themselves, by an alteration in covering and habit, to surrounding circumstances, which would, were the variations abrupt, speedily destroy it. The reason why a race of animals occasionally thrives so well in a country to which it may be removed, appears to lie in its being suited, I may say, accidentally, by peculiar conformation, to the temperature to which it is transplanted. There are some happy climates where, introduce what animals you will, no matter how stunted they are, or how different the degree

s a soft and useful fur, though not suited, like New South Wales, for the growth of the finest wool, and that the colony might turn this to great advantage. In cold regions the hairy covering is more developed and fully coarser, but always mingled with a proportion of hard rough wool. The influence of climate on portions of the fleece and skin is well illustrated by circumstances which have occurred in Galloway, even within the limits of our traditionary writings.[11] The native sheep of the Highlands of that district is supposed to have been a small, handsome, white-faced breed; at least so thinks John MacLellan, who wrote an account of Galloway in 1650, from the wool being much praised, and eagerly bought up by merchants, which w

-faced animals superseded the goats, which were at one time a source of subsistence to the farmers, and it is exceedingly probable, that as the old white-faced began to change their appearance, and became

e domesticated sheep consists in the augmentation of the number of its horns; two, three, or even four supplementary appendages of this description being occasionally produced in addition to the normal number. Under these circumstances the additional horns usually occupy the upper and fore part of the head, and are of a more slender shape, and take a more upright direction than the others, thus approaching in character to those of the goats, while the true horns retain more or less of the spiral curve that distinguishes tho

olds good in other animals. The reason of this appears to lie in the tendency which the hair or wool, constituting the horny sheath, has to model the form of the supporting bone. The fibre of hair is nearly straight; that of wool is, on the other hand, remarkable for the number of tufted curls, or small spiral ringlets, into which it naturally contracts; so that a Merino ram, for example, will never be found with rectilinear horns, nor a true goat with twisted ones. The truth of these remarks is borne out by observations on animals on whose heads more than two horns are occasionally met with. We always in such instances notice, that the additional horns

f the transition had been from a temperate to an icy region. Hence one of the reasons why sheep thrive best in a rather elevated situation. Moist air, however, is exceedingly oppressive in hot weather, because evaporation, from the surface of the body, is to a great extent diminished; and it is only by the perspiration being allowed to escape rapidly, and to convey away the heated particles, that we can manage to be in any degree comfortable during the heat of summer. This free evaporation we endeavour in every way to obtain, and often in a manner that ignorant people would consider as the reverse of sensible. It is well known that draughts of cold liquids are very far from answering the p

ntry. Paris and Quebec are nearly under the same latitude; yet the air of the latter is much colder than that of the former, evidently from its being surrounded by forests so dense and umbrageous, that sun and wind are alike denied access to the earth. The difference between a cleared and an uncleared country, in regard to wool, is well illustrated, by contrasting North America, its heavy woods and stagnant atmosphere, with the thinly timbered surface and constantly renovated air of New South Wales. It is only within the last few years that Canada has been enabled to compete with Britain in the article of wool, and that t

erate zones, and can evidently only be raised to its highest point of excellence in the countries of the vine. The western parts of continents produce better sheep than the eastern, and the southern hemisphere better than the northern; as in the former situations the temperature is more nearly equable than in the latter. The same may be said of maritime districts, as compared with such as are inland. Temperature is affected in the same way by elevation as by northern or southern position-the mean heat diminishing

, remarkable for the magnitude of the tail, which forms an immense fatty appendage. The sheep of Persia, Tartary, and China, are distinguished from all others by the tail forming a double globe of fat. The North of Europe, and North of A

turbable and steady-going habits so characteristic of the bulbous bottomed Hollander. Subdued as they are by the nature of their locality, they readily submit to man, who tutors them at will, and works on them those profitable changes from which have originated our improved varieties. As connected with the unquiet dispositions of hill sheep, I may mention the prevalence of a notion, that domesticated sheep cannot by any possibility become wild. From all that I have seen, and read, I am led to believe, though the sheep, according to Greek, Roman, and Oriental philosophers, was the first animal domesticated, that when at liberty it will soon return to its primitive and instinctive habits. Bonnycastle, in his work on Spanish America, remarks, that sheep are found in a state of nature, in the northern parts of New Spain, "having multiplied to an extraordinary degree in the wide-spread plains, and savannahs." In ascending our Scottish mountains, every one must observe the state bordering upon wildness, in which the sheep appear, roving in detached but well-

swater, for the richest grass lands, and finest worsted manufactures-the New Leicester, for less fertile grass land, and for rich enclosed arable land, on which the fold is not used; intended to supply coarser worsted, stockings, coarse cloths, blankets, and

land, upland, and plain. The highland consists of primitive rocks, covered by peaty soil and heath, on which these indefatigable gleaners, the black-faced sheep, alone can gain a subsistence. The upland is formed by the tr

its adaptation to the natural circumstances of that district is proved by the rapid progress which it made, and the profits which resulted to the individuals with whom it originated. Places which formerly were not of the slightest utility, now yielded heavy rents. The spots

called into existence; and their crosses are now spread over most part of the country; principally the corn districts, as they are supposed to be the most profitable kind on farms where the best tillage crops are combined with the fattening of livestock, though Marshall supposes th

at distance, immediately betake themselves full speed, one and all, to the shore, where they continue till it begins to flow." The sheep of Iceland are content during severe winters to feed, and be preserved, on messes of chopped fish-bones, being all that the ingenuity of their masters can provide in the way of a precarious sustenance. During the long continuance of snow-storms, when the herbage is beyond the reach of their utmost efforts, s

e unseen and neglected by ordinary sheep; perhaps the dog of the cottager is not so completely domesticated as it is." That Mr Moorecraft is correct in this statement of its omnivorous propensities, there cannot be the slightest doubt, as any farmer can testify from what he has seen of lambs reared by children for amusement. The celebrated John Hunter showed, that a pigeon might be made to live on flesh, and that its stomach became adapted to the nature of this food: and I have somewhere read of a sheep, which, after being long on ship-board, and accustomed, from scarcity of vegetables, to an animal diet, could never after be prevailed upon to take to gras

eating, with impunity, the Mortimia acris, the Rhus lucidum, and the Lycium afrum, which are all of a poisonous nature; and, in this country, hemlock is known to be quite innocuous to sheep. What is poison to on

ed upon them are, consequently, of a laxer fibre, and the flesh less wholesome, as well as less savoury. This, I have no doubt, is perfectly correct, as many diseases may be traced to such improper food, and what is calculated to produce in some cases actual disease, cannot fail to prove at all times capable of retarding the advancement of the animal. These soft succulent pastures appear not to be positively poisonous, but to be negatively so from their deficiency in saline matter; the rapid growth of the plant preventing the elimination and absorption, of many of these ingredients with which the soil abounds. This is proved by the greater necessity which exists for the use of salt in the food of the herbivorous animals of hot climates, than in that of such as inhabit temperate, or cold latitudes; vegetation being in the former more rapid in its details, and in certain states of the atmosphere hurried in the extreme, while in the latter the process proceeds with that leisure w

ituated immediately beneath the skin, and occasions that beautiful rotundity so much admired in children. As the animal advances in life, the fibres become firmer, larger, and more approximated, the cellular tissue disappears to a great extent, the fat shifts from the outward to the inward parts, allowing the outline of the muscles to be distinctly seen, but giving at the same time to the figure that portly symptom of good keeping, so unpleasant to the eye when carried to the extent of Aldermanic dignity. All these appearances are, however, varied by exercise, which tends, in a marked degree, to increase the muscular parts at the expense of the fat-the former becoming, when employed within proper limits, large, and unyielding to the touch, while at the same time the colour is heightened from a pale or purple hue, to the bright vermilion so justly rel

d gravy only. A third plump, short, and palatable, affording a mixture of white and red gravy. A fourth likewise plump, and well-flavoured, but discharging red gravy only, and this in various quantities. It is likewise observable that some mutton, when dressed, appears covered with a thick, tough, parchment-like integument; others with a membrane comparatively fine and flexible." This membrane ought to be rather thin than thick, as, when of the latter texture, you may safely affirm that the animal was aged. Looseness is reckoned a bad quality of the flesh of sheep during life, as indicating a coarse-grained porous mutton, and as equally exceptionab

incipal perquisites on the over-roasting of oily meat! The fat, though not reckoned as offal in the slaughter-house, will speedily show itself as such in the kitchen, by the waste during the cooking process, even in England where fat meat is so much admired; and it is surely absurd to pay the price of good mutton for tallow, when if the latter were really wanted, it could be procured at a cheaper rate by itself, than when forming part of a dear commodity. The only way in which over-fat meat can at all be reckoned profitable, is in its application to the wants of the working classes, whose bodily labour enables them to enjoy what would to others prove displeasing in the extreme, and to digest and assimilate with ease, food which to the sons of sloth would prove a poison. So far as these wants have been supplied,

iginal plump condition in a few days; and animals that have been famished, as hogs, afterwards fatten very rapidly. Moderate and repeated bleedings, mild farinaceous diet, and emasculation conjoined, tend to the repletion of the body, and to the speedy deposition of fat; yet it would appear, that when acquired in this rapid manner, it never possesses the value in a culinary point of view, that is

ep are never put to full turnips in winter, nor to rich pastures in summer, but are prepared for turnips on good grass lands, and kept on second years' leys, and afterwards given a moderate allowance of turnips if they are to be fatted on pastures. It is an invariable rule with all good managers, never to allow this or any other animal, reared solely for the shambles, to lose flesh from its earliest age till it is sent to the butcher as more food is necessary to bring it to a certain condition than to keep it at it. In

ng to the variety of sustenance being considerable, yet proportional harm will ensue sufficient to induce us not to repeat the risk. Nature, the best of guides in all that relates to the protection of her creatures, is no where more pointed in her directions than on this head. A necessity for a variety of food, and a desire to secure it, are implanted in the disposition of every animal; and where is the creature more prone to extensive rambles than the sheep? We limit it to a paltry pasture-ground of roods and acres, but does it not show, by its determination to transgress our barriers, that such is not the treatment nature has designed for it? There

t with in a wild state; they have evidently been brought to their present fulness by the care of ages. The red cabbage and the cauliflower are the altered descendants of a widely different sea-side plant. The different races of cabbages are examples of a wonderful deviation from the natural type, and they all require much nicety in cultivation to prevent them assuming the characters of the original stock, as, when permitted to grow wild, especially on a sterile soil as that of the sea coast, they are sure in no long time to become exact counterparts of their originals. Cultivation, also, though taken in rather a different sense, influences to a great extent the form and features of animals. In proof of this may be adduced the differences that exist between different ranks of inhabitants in almost all countries. Buffon says, that in France you may distinguish by their aspect not only the nobles from the peasantry, but the superior orders of nobility from the inferior-these from citizens, and citizens from peasants. The African field-slaves in America, are extremely different from the domestic s

ago," says Buffon (writing in 1749), "our pot-herbs consisted of a single species of succory, and two of lettuce, both very bad; but we have now more than fifty kinds of lettuce and succory, all of which are good. Our best fruits and nuts, which are so different from those formerly cultivated that they have no resemblance but in the name, must likewise be referred to a very modern date. In general, substances remain, and names change with times: but in this case names remain, and substances are changed. Our peaches, our apricots, our pears, are new productions with ancient names. To remove every doubt upon this subject, we have only to compare our flowers and fruits with the descriptions, or rather notices of them transmitted to us by the Greeks and Romans. All their flowers were single, and all their fruit-trees were wild stocks, and their species very ill-chosen. Their fruits of course, were small, dry, sour, and had neither the flavour nor the beauty of ours. These new and good species originally sprung from the wild kinds; but how many times have their seeds been sown before this happy effect was produced? It was only by sowing and rearing an infinite number of vegetab

ed be destroyed. Culley, however, was of opinion, that less risk is run by breeding in-and-in than is generally supposed, and instances the wild cattle in Chillingham Park, in the county of Northumberland, which, having been confined for several hundred years without intermixture, must have bred from the nearest affinities, and yet are just as they were five hundred years since. With all due deference, however, to the opinion of the late Mr Culley, I must assert, that I cannot perceive in what manner wild cattle can be made to illustrate the case in point, as it must be evident, that animals in a state of nature differ essentially from those in charge of man, in regard to the propagation of infirmities, as the former, if born with a radical defect, will, ten to one, never see the age which suits them for reproduction; while the latter, from the care bestowed upon them, will, even when very delicate, in many instances be bolstered up t

uses, is yet frequently the result of an "owr sib" connection. These are, I may say, the accidental opinions of men who had no point to make good, in which their credit was at all at stake, and who are not endeavouring to support the crude opinions of former years. For these reasons, they possess a value which ought to give them a proportional weight in an investigation like the present. Mr Bakewell succeeded in bringing his sheep to great perfection as regards form, and rapidity of fattening, by breeding in the same family for a great many years; but it was attended with considerable deterioration in the quality of the wool, and engendered a liability to disease, sufficient to deter any one from proceeding a similar length in the same track, to what is so dubiously called improvement. See what Mr Dickson says to this effect, in a recent number of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. "The evil of breeding in-and-in, or in other words, producing too great refinement of tone, is manifested in the first instance by a tenderness of constitution; the animals not being able to withstand the extremes of heat and cold, rain and drought. If the evil is prolonged through several generations, the forms of the animals become affected, the bone becomes very small, the neck droops, the skin of the head becomes tight and scantily covered with hair, the expression of the eye indicates extreme sensibility, the hair on the body becomes thin and short, and the skin as thin as paper; the points continue good, and predisposition to fatness increases, but the whole carcass b

ich are inter-changed, have always had shades of difference impressed upon them, by various soils and treatment, so that the defects of each family have a good chance to be counteracted by the perfections of the other. By this means the bad points are gradually exhausted, and their valuable properties as gradually heightened. Breeders have been much aided in the furtherance of this desirable plan, by the rearing of superior rams having become, of late years, a

ime of changing, while every property calculated to resist privation and fatigue was unconfirmed in the progeny; and, in consequence, the ravages by rot, and poverty, among the flocks that occupied soft pastures were immense." How did it happen, that the store-master had no other resource but to persevere in an unprofitable course? Was he obliged to strive against natural obstacles, which even a short experience might have taught him were, in that manner, insurmountable? Why not recur at once to the old mode of management, rather than injure himself by kicking against the pricks. "Sundry store-masters were not aware," says Mr Hogg, "that their old breed would so obstinately resist the impression of the Cheviot blood, nor did they ever dream that the mongrel issue would be so easily subdued by the hardships and cold of winter: thus finding their scheme opposed, at points where they anticipated little resistance, they gave up the experiment ere it was half completed, and introduced mountain rams to the mongrel issue." Enough, however, has been said to prove that this plan ought not to be pursued: let me now say a few words as to the reasons which should deter us from its adoption. To take a familiar illustration:-How would one of the worshipful company of Aldermen, or a dignitary of the Church, manage to keep up an appearance, if suddenly transported from the luxurious plenty which surrounds him, to the meagre fare, and churlish climate, of our Highlands? Would their offspring, which ten to one would be prone to rapid growth, and, therefore, requiring at the least a large supply of porridge and milk; would they, I ask, arrive at a healthy maturity, if supported only on the oaten cake, and whang of skimmed-milk cheese, of the hardy Northern? The answer is, they would not. They would, doubtless, bear the climate; but the habit of body imprinted on them, by the full living of the parents, would require a more nutritious food to bring it to the adult age,

osure, and the quantity and quality of its productions, are calculated for the profitable maintenance of the animal in view. Far too little attention is bestowed, at the commencement of such an undertaking, on these all-swaying matters. Farmers enter upon this, the most arduous of all professions, with the settled conviction, that nothing is so simple as the engrafting of a race of animals on a particular part of a country. They have read, or heard, of others who have gained fame, and a fortune, by successful endeavours of the

mselves at the head of improvement in stock, relaxing their exertions, and keeping by their own stock; and the consequence has been, that such stocks have degenerated, become delicate, tender, and diminutive in size; and from no other cause but that the same pains have not been taken to preserve the improvement, that was taken to effect it. I could mention many improvers who were of the first class formerly, but who are now only in the second." Changes, in fact, by crossing are not to be effected in a short space of time; you must look forward to several years of constant exertion, before you can hope, in this manner, to alter your stock.[17] Then, again, we must be aware of the tendency which nature, in numerous instances, displays to perpetuate diseases, dispositions, and aberrations from the normal structure. Many qualities and diseases, are known, in man, to be hereditary; of the former, I may instance peculiarities in walking, and writing; a passion for intoxicating liquors, and other habits too trivial to mention; and of the latter, gout, pulmonary consumption, and blindness from cataract, which are well known to harass a family for generations. Features, in like manner, may remain for ages of the same undeviating cast; thus the Jews of to-day are the very counterparts of the Jews of three thousand years back, and, in all likelihood, will so remain till the end of time. A predisposition to many diseases is engendered in the sheep, by too great a refinement in breeding, which tends to diminish the size of the animal, prevents them feeding to perfection, destroys their fecundity, and imparts great tenderness of constitution. Accidental deviations from the natural type may, also, be hereditary, as is seen in those races of dogs which have a supernumerary toe on the hind foot, and tarsal bones to correspond. In the human race also several generations of a particular family have been distinguished, by having six fingers and six toes, on their hands and feet. It is in like manner to an accidental malformation, that the Americans are indebted for their Otter breed of sheep. Mr Livingston, who wrote in 1811, thus

, which it is now no difficult matter to get a view of, as, thanks to the spirited exertions of the Highland Society, valuable specimens are far from rare. In breeding and rearing rams, two divisions of these animals are recognised,-ram getters, and wedder getters,-the former, from their fineness, being kept for the procreation of animals like themselves, while the latter, from their coarseness, are set aside as fitted only for parent stock for grazier's sheep, the mere grazier liking a ram no worse for having a massy frame, and being less scrupulous about his form than the ram breeder, whose grand object is fineness, and who trusts to the ewes for giving the offspring size and substance. The p

he plain principle, that the value lies in the barrel, not in the legs; and all breeds the backs of which rise in the least ridge are bad. Their bodies should be as true barre

. In

th,

ght

of Col

f shoulde

ross the r

cross the

common breeds never carrying fat there. They are particularly distinguished by the lightness of the offal, the bones being one-half smaller than in some other breeds, and the meat propo

leave not the least hollow in either place; the mutton upon his arm or fore-thigh must come quite to the knee; his legs upright, with a clean fine bone, being equally clear from superfluous skin and coarse hairy wool from the knee and hough downwards; the breast broad and well forward, which will keep his forelegs at a proper wideness; his girth or chest full and deep, and instead of a hollow behind the shoulders, that part by some called the fore-flank, should be quite full; the back and loins broad, flat, and straight, from which the ribs must rise in

d tongue are of the same colour with his wool; for when these parts of his body are black or spotted, there arises a black or speckled offspring

ho' the ram hi

ousy palate

ted tongue; for

e fleeces of h

m without horns is better,) but because horns that are twisted and bended inwards are not at all so hurtful as those that are set upright and expanded. Nevertheless, in some countries where the

ks, we have generally a something occurring which upse

n the form of the progeny. "The ideas entertained respecting the useful qualities of an animal would (in former times) be very similar, and lead to the adoption of a general standard of excellence, towards which it would be required that each male should approximate; and thus there would exist, among what may be termed fashionable sires, a corresponding form and character, different from, and superior to, those of the general stock of the country. This form and character would, in most i

blood and cart breed, where the great difference in form and character is nicely blended; but, occasionally, the peculiarities of the male, or female, are visible on

of mine, and bred from them with the ordinary rams, that the breed very quickly got bad: whereas, when a Bakewell ram had been purchased, I have seen a most remarkable change on the quality of the sheep; and, in several instances, where the ewes (Highlanders) had been tolerable from which they had bred, the cross was so nearly resembling a new Leicester, as to deceive any one who was not a thorough judge." Bewick, the natural historian, supports this opinion when speaking of the original breed of wild cattle, still to be found in a few English and Scottish parks. They are uniformly pure whit

both that perfection can be looked for. I recollect several years ago, at a distinguished breeder's in Northumberland, meeting with a shrewd Scottish borderer, (indeed, if report be true, the original and identical Dandy Dinmont,) who, after admiring, with a considerable spice of national pique, a very fine short-horn bull, demanded anxiously to see the dam. The cow having been accordingly produced

This is well illustrated by a fact which came under the notice of the Earl of Morton. His lordship bred from a male quagga and a mare of seven-eights Arabian blood, a female hybrid, displaying in form and colour her mixed origin. The mare was then given to Sir Gore Ouseley, who bred from her first a filly and afterwards a colt, by a fine black Arabian horse, but both these, in their colour and in the hair of their manes, strongly resembled the quagga. This isolated fact would be, however, but of small va

readily admitted, seeing their debasing consequences are carried through whole generations, and that though absent in one remove, yet that they may appear in the next. Both sire and dam should be chosen as free from defects as possible, a thing often neglected in rearing domestic animals, especially horses, where the opinion is in vogue, that no m

and it has been proposed to turn this, apparently a law of nature, to account, in the management of flocks, as it must often be of consequence to obtain, at will, a considerable increase of the sex most wanted. On this subject there will be found

roposed, at a meeting of the Agricultural Society of Séverac, on the 3d of July, 1826, to divide a flock of sheep into two equal parts, so that a greater number of males or females, at the choice of the proprietor, should be

es in their offspring and also, that during the season when the rams were with the ewes, they should have more abundant pasture than the other; while to the flock from which the propr

e lambs. Flock

f the Lambs. Age of the m

Fem. Ma

14 26 Two

16 29 Three

5 21 Four

5 76 Tot

er, 18 8 Five year

3 84 Tot

teen months, the other nearly two years old. N.B.-There were no twin-births

or its increase, Nature produces the greatest number of that sex which, in animals that do not pair, is most efficient for increasing the number of the race. But if they are in a bad climate, or on a stinted pasture, or if they have already given birth to a numerous offspring, then Nature, setting limits