DRIVING. Mutton can be grown cheaper than any other kind of meat. It is
fast becoming better appreciated; and, strange as it may seem, good
mutton brings a higher price in our best markets than the same quality
does in England. Its substitution in a large measure for pork would
contribute materially to the health of the community.
Winter fattening of sheep may often be made very profitable and
deserves greater attention, especially where manure is an object; and
the instances are few, indeed, where it is not. In England, it is
considered good policy to fatten sheep, if the increase of weight will
pay for the oil-cake or grain consumed; the manure being deemed a fair
equivalent for the other food--that is, as much straw and turnips as
they will eat. Lean sheep there usually command as high a price per
pound in the fall as fatted ones in the spring; while, in this country,
the latter usually bear a much higher price, which gives the feeder a
great advantage.
The difference may be best illustrated by a simple calculation. Suppose
a wether of a good mutton breed, weighing eighty pounds in the fall, to
cost six cents per pound, amounting to four dollars and eighty cents,
and to require twenty pounds of hay per week, or its equivalent in other
food, and to gain a pound and a half each week; the gain in weight in
four months would be about twenty-five pounds, which, at six cents per
pound, would be one dollar and fifty cents, or less than ten dollars per
ton for the hay consumed; but if the same sheep could be bought in the
fall for three cents per pound, and sold in the spring for six cents,
the gain would amount to three dollars and ninety cents, or upwards of
twenty dollars per ton for the hay--the manure being the same in either
case.
For fattening, it is well to purchase animals as large and thrifty, and
in as good condition as can be had at fair prices; and to feed
liberally, so as to secure the most rapid increase that can be had
without waste of food. The fattening of sheep by the aid of oil-cake, or
grain purchased for the purpose, may often be made a cheaper mode of
obtaining manure than by the purchase of artificial fertilizers, as
guano, super-phosphate of lime, and the like; and it is altogether
preferable. It is practised extensively and advantageously abroad, and
deserves at least a fair trial among us.
[Illustration: THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK.]
Sheep which are to be driven to market should not begin their journey
either when too full or too hungry; in the former state, they are apt to
purge while on the road, and in the latter, they will lose strength at
once. The sheep selected for market should be those in the best
condition at the time; and to ascertain this, it is necessary to examine
the whole lot, and separate the fattest from the rest, which is best
done at about mid-day, before the sheep feed again in the afternoon. The
selected ones are placed in a field by themselves, where they remain
until the time for starting. If there be rough pasture to give them,
they should be allowed to use it, in order to rid themselves of some of
the food which might be productive of inconvenience on the journey. If
there is no such pasture, a few cut turnips will answer. All their
hoofs should be carefully examined, and every unnecessary appendage
removed, though the firm portion of the horn should not be touched.
Every clotted piece of wool should also be removed with the shears, and
the animals properly marked.
Being thus prepared, they should have feed early in the morning, and be
started, in the cold season, about mid-day. Let them walk quietly away;
and as the road is new to them, they will go too fast at first, to
prevent which, the drover should go before them, and let his dog bring
up the rear. In a short time they will assume the proper speed--about
one mile an hour. Should the road they travel be a green one, they will
proceed nibbling their way onward at the grass along both sides; but if
it is a narrow turnpike, the drover will require all his attention in
meeting and being passed by various vehicles, to avoid injury to his
charge. In this part of their business, drovers generally make too much
ado; and the consequence is, that the sheep are driven more from side to
side of the road than is requisite. Upon meeting a carriage, it would be
much better for the sheep, were the drover to go forward, instead of
sending his dog, and point off with his stick the leading sheep to the
nearest side of the road; and the rest will follow, as a matter of
course, while the dog walks behind the flock and brings up the
stragglers. Open gates to fields are sources of great annoyance to
drovers, the stock invariably making an endeavor to go through them. On
observing an open gate ahead, the drover should send his dog behind him
over the fence, to be ready to meet the sheep at the gate. When the
sheep incline to rest, they should be allowed to lie down.
When the animals are lodged for the night, a few turnips or a little hay
should be furnished to them, if the road-sides are bare. If these are
placed near the gate of the field which they occupy, they will be ready
to take the road again in the morning. As a precaution against worrying
dogs, the drover should go frequently through the flock with a light,
retire to rest late, and rise up early in the morning. These precautions
are necessary; since, when sheep have once been disturbed by dogs, they
will not settle again upon the road. The first day's journey should be a
short one, not exceeding four or five miles. The whole journey should be
so marked out as that, allowance being made for unforeseen delays, the
animals may have one day's rest near the market.
POINTS OF FAT SHEEP. The formation of fat, in a sheep destined to be
fattened, commences in the inside, the web of fat which envelopes the
intestines being first formed, and a little deposited around the
kidneys. After that, fat is seen on the outside; and first upon the end
of the rump at the tail-head, continuing to move on along the back, on
both sides of the spine, or back-bone, to the bend of the ribs to the
neck. Then it is deposited between the muscles, parallel with the
cellular tissue. Meanwhile, it is covering the lower round of the ribs
descending to the flanks, until the two sides meet under the belly,
whence it proceeds to the brisket, or breast, in front, and the sham or
cod behind, filling up the inside of the arm-pits and thighs. While all
these depositions are proceeding on the outside, the progress in the
inside is not checked, but rather increased, by the fattening
disposition encouraged by the acquired condition; and, hence,
simultaneously, the kidneys become entirely covered, and the space
between the intestines and the lumbar region, or loin, gradually filled
up by the web and kidney fat.
By this time the cellular spaces around each fibre of muscle are
receiving their share; and when fat is deposited there in quantity, it
gives to the meat the term _marbled_. These inter-fibrous spaces are the
last to receive a deposition of fat; but after this has begun, every
other part at the same time receives its due share, the back and kidneys
securing the most, so much so that the former literally becomes
_nicked_, as it is termed--that is, the fat is felt through the skin to
be divided into two portions, from the tail-head along the back to the
top of the shoulder; and the tail becoming thick and stiff, the top of
the neck broad, the lower part of each side of the neck toward the
breasts full, and the hollows between the breast-bone and the inside of
the fore legs, and between the cod and the inside of the hind thighs,
filled up. When all this has been accomplished, the sheep is said to be
_fat_, or _ripe_.
When the body of a fat sheep is entirely overlaid with fat, it is in the
most valuable state as mutton. Few sheep, however, lay on fat entirely
over their body; one laying the largest proportion on the rump, another
on the back; one on the parts adjoining the fore-quarter, another on
those of the hind-quarter; and one more on the inside, and another more
on the outside. Taking so many parts, and combining any two or more of
them together, a considerable variety of condition will be found in any
lot of fat sheep, while any one is as ripe in its way as any other.
With these data for guides, the state of a sheep in its progress toward
ripeness may be readily detected by handling. A fat sheep, however, is
easily known by the eye, from the fullness exhibited by all the
external parts of the particular animal. It may exhibit want in some
parts when compared with others; but those parts, it may easily be seen,
would never become so ripe as the others; and this arises from some
constitutional defect in the animal itself; since, if this were so,
there is no reason why all the parts should not be alike ripe. The state
of a sheep that is obviously not ripe cannot altogether be ascertained
by the eye. It must be handled, or subjected to the scrutiny of the
hand. Even in so palpable an act as handling, discretion is requisite. A
full-looking sheep needs hardly to be handled on the rump; for he would
not seem so full, unless fat had first been deposited there. A
thin-looking sheep, on the other hand, should be handled on the rump;
and if there be no fat there, it is useless to handle the rest of the
body, for certainly there will not be so much as to deserve the name of
fat. Between these two extremes of condition, every variety exists; and
on that account examination by the hand is the rule, and by the eye
alone the exception. The hand is, however, much assisted by the eye,
whose acuteness detects deficiencies and redundancies at once.
In handling sheep, the points of the fingers are chiefly employed; and
the accurate knowledge conveyed by them, through practice, of the exact
state of the condition, is truly surprising, and establishes a
conviction in the mind that some intimate relation exists between the
external and internal state of an animal. Hence originates this
practical maxim in judging stock of all kinds--that no animal will
appear ripe to the eye, unless as much fat had previously been acquired
in the inside as constitutional habit will allow.
The application of this rule is easy. When the rump is found nicked, on
handling, fat is to be found on the back; when the back is found nicked,
fat is to be expected on the top of the shoulder and over the ribs; and
when the top of the shoulder proves to be nicked, fat may be anticipated
on the under side of the belly, To ascertain its existence below, the
animal must be _turned up_, as it is termed; that is, the sheep is set
upon his rump, with his back down, and his hind feet pointing upward and
outward. In this position, it can be seen whether the breast and thighs
are filled up. Still, all these alone would not disclose the state of
the inside of the sheep, which should, moreover, be looked for in the
thickness of the flank; in the fullness of the breast, that is, the
space in front from shoulder to shoulder toward the neck; in the
stiffness and thickness of the root of the tail; and in the breadth of
the back of the neck. All these latter parts, especially with the
fullness of the inside of the thighs, indicate a fullness of fat in the
inside; that is, largeness of the mass of fat on the kidneys, thickness
of net, and thickness of layers between the abdominal muscles. Hence,
the whole object of feeding sheep on turnips and the like seems to be to
lay fat upon all the bundles of fleshy fibres, called muscles, that are
capable of acquiring that substance; for, as to bone and muscle, these
increase in weight and extent independently of fat, and fat only
increases in their magnitude.
SLAUGHTERING. Sheep are easily slaughtered, and the operation is
unattended with cruelty. They require some preparation before being
deprived of life, which consists in food being withheld from them for
not less than twenty-four hours, according to the season. The reason for
fasting sheep before slaughtering is to give time for the paunch and
intestines to empty themselves entirely of food, as it is found that,
when an animal is killed with a full stomach, the meat is more liable to
putrefy, and it not so well flavored; and, as ruminating animals always
retain a large quantity of food in their intestines, it is reasonable
that they should fast somewhat longer to get rid of it, than animals
with single stomachs.
Sheep are placed on their side--sometimes upon a stool, called a
killing-stool--to be slaughtered, and, requiring no fastening with
cords, are deprived of life by the use of a straight knife through the
neck, between its bone and the windpipe, severing the carotid artery and
the jugular vein of both sides, from which the blood flows freely out,
and the animal soon dies.
[Illustration: DROVER'S OR BUTCHER'S DOG.]
The skin, as far as it is covered with wool, is taken off, leaving that
on the legs and head, which are covered with hair, the legs being
disjointed by the knee. The entrails are removed by an incision along
the belly, after the carcass has been hung up by the tendons of the
boughs. The net is carefully separated from the viscera, and rolled up
by itself; but the kidney fat is not then extracted. The intestines are
placed on the inner side of the skin until divided into the _pluck_,
containing the heart, lungs, and liver; the bag, containing the stomach;
and the _puddings_, consisting of the viscera, or guts. The latter are
usually thrown away; though the Scotch, however, clean them and work
them up into their favorite _haggis_. The skin is hung over a rope or
pole under cover, with the skin-side uppermost, to dry in an airy place.
The carcass should hang twenty-four hours in a clean, cool, airy, dry
apartment before it is cut down. It should be cool and dry; for, if
warm, the meat will not become firm; and, if damp, a clamminess will
cover it, and it will never feel dry, and present a fresh, clean
appearance. The carcass is divided in two, by being sawed right down the
back-bone. The kidney-fat is then taken out, being only attached to the
peritoneum by the cellular membrane, and the kidney is extracted from
the _suet_, the name given to sheep-tallow in an independent state.
CUTTING UP. Of the two modes of cutting up a carcass of mutton, the
English and the Scotch--of the former, the practice in London being
taken as the standard, and of the latter, that of Edinburgh, since more
care is exercised in this respect in these two cities--the English is,
perhaps, preferable; although the Scotch accomplish the task in a
cleanly and workmanlike manner.
The _jigot_ is the most handsome and valuable part of the carcass,
bringing the highest price, and is either a roasting or a boiling piece.
A jigot of Leicester, Cheviot, or South-Down mutton makes a beautiful
boiled leg of mutton, which is prized the more the fatter it is--this
part of the carcass being never overloaded with fat. The _loin_ is
almost always roasted, the flap of the flank being skewered up, and it
is a juicy piece. Many consider this piece of Leicester mutton, roasted,
as too rich; and when warm this is, probably, the case; but a cold
roast loin is an excellent summer dish. The _back-rib_ is divided into
two, and used for very different purposes. The forepart--the neck--is
boiled, and makes sweet barley-broth; and the meat, when boiled, or
rather the whole simmered for a considerable time beside the fire, eats
tenderly. The back-ribs make an excellent roast; indeed, there is not a
sweeter or more varied one in the whole carcass, having both ribs and
shoulder. The shoulder-blade eats best cold, and the ribs, warm. The
ribs make excellent chops, the Leicester and South-Down affording the
best. The _breast_ is mostly a roasting-piece, consisting of rib and
shoulder, and is particularly good when cold. When the piece is large,
as of the South-Down or Cheviot, the gristly parts of the ribs may be
divided from the true ribs, and helped separately. This piece also boils
well; or, when corned for eight days, and served with onion sauce, with
mashed turnips in it, there are few more savory dishes at a farmer's
table. The _shoulder_ is separated before being dressed, and makes an
excellent roast for family use, being eaten warm or cold, or carved and
dressed as the breast mentioned above. The shoulder is best from a large
carcass of South-Down, Cheviot, or Leicester. The _neck-piece_ is partly
laid bare by the removal of the shoulder, the forepart being fitted for
boiling and making into broth, and the best part for roasting or
broiling into chops. On this account, it is a good family piece, and
generally preferred to any part of the hind-quarter. Heavy sheep, such
as the Leicester, South-Down, and Cheviot, supply the most thrifty
neck-piece.
RELATIVE QUALITIES. The different sorts of mutton in common use differ
as well in quality as in quantity. The flesh of the _Leicester_ is
large, though not coarse-grained, of a lively red color, and the
cellular tissue between the fibres contains a considerable quantity of
fat. When cooked, it is tender and juicy, yielding a red gravy, and
having a sweet, rich taste; but the fat is rather too much and too rich
for some people's tastes, and can be put aside. It must be allowed that
the lean of fat meat is far better than lean meat that has never been
fat. _Cheviot_ mutton is smaller in the grain, not so bright of color,
with less fat, less juice, not so tender and sweet; but the flavor is
higher, and the fat not so luscious. The mutton of _South-Downs_ is of
medium fineness in grain, color pleasant red, fat well intermixed with
the meat, juicy, and tenderer than Cheviot. The mutton of rams of any
breed is always hard, of disagreeable flavor, and, in autumn, not
eatable; that of old ewes is dry, hard, and tasteless; of young ones,
well enough flavored, but still rather dry; while wether-mutton is the
meat in perfection, according to its kind.
The want of relish, perhaps the distaste, for mutton has served as an
obstacle to the extension of sheep husbandry in the United States. The
common mistake in the management of mutton among us is, that it is
eaten, as a general thing, at exactly the wrong time after it is killed.
It should be eaten immediately after being killed, and, if possible,
before the meat has time to get cold; or, if not, then it should be kept
a week or more--in the ice-house, if the weather require--until the time
is just at hand when the fibre passes the state of toughness which it
takes on at first, and reaches that incipient or preliminary point in
its process toward putrefaction when the fibres begin to give way, and
the meat becomes tender.
An opinion likewise generally prevails that mutton does not attain
perfection in juiciness and flavor much under five years.
If this be so, that breed of sheep must be very unprofitable which takes
five years to attain its full state; and there is no breed of sheep in
this country which requires five years to bring it to perfection. This
being the case, it must be folly to restrain sheep from coming to
perfection until they have reached that age. Lovers of five-year-old
mutton do not pretend that this course bestows profit on the farmer, but
only insist on its being best at that age. Were this the fact, one of
two absurd conditions must exist in this department of agriculture:
namely, the keeping a breed of sheep that cannot, or that should not be
allowed to, attain to perfection before it is five years old; either of
which conditions makes it obvious that mutton cannot be in its _best_
state at five years.
The truth is, the idea of mutton of this age being especially excellent,
is founded on a prejudice, arising, probably, from this circumstance:
before winter food was discovered, which could maintain the condition of
stock which had been acquired in summer, sheep lost much of their summer
condition in winter, and, of course, an oscillation of condition
occurred, year after year, until they attained the age of five years;
when their teeth beginning to fail, would cause them to lose their
condition the more rapidly. Hence, it was expedient to slaughter them at
not exceeding five years of age; and, no doubt, mutton would be
high-flavored at that age, that had been exclusively fed on natural
pasture and natural hay. Such treatment of sheep cannot, however, be
justified on the principles of modern practice; because both reason and
taste concur in mutton being at its best whenever sheep attain their
perfect state of growth and condition, not their largest and heaviest;
and as one breed attains its perfect state at an earlier age than
another, its mutton attains its best before another breed attains what
is its best state, although its sheep may be older; but taste alone
prefers one kind of mutton to another, even when both are in their best
state, from some peculiar property. The cry for five-year-old mutton is
thus based on very untenable grounds; the truth being that well-fed and
fatted mutton is never better than when it gets its full growth in its
second year; and the farmer cannot afford to keep it longer, unless the
wool would pay for the keep, since we have not the epicures and men of
wealth who would pay the butcher the extra price, which he must have, to
enable him to pay a remunerating price to the grazier for keeping his
sheep two or three years over.
All writers on diet agree in describing mutton as the most valuable of
the articles of human food. Pork may be more stimulating, beef perhaps
more nutritious, when the digestive powers are strong; but, while there
is in mutton sufficient nutriment, there is also that degree of
consistency and readiness of assimilation which renders it most
congenial to the human stomach, most easy of digestion, and most
promotive of human health. Of it, almost alone, can it be said that it
is our food in sickness, as well as in health; its broth is the first
thing, generally, that an invalid is permitted to taste, the first thing
that he relishes, and is a natural preparation for his return to his
natural aliment. In the same circumstances, it appears that fresh
mutton, broiled or boiled, requires three hours for digestion; fresh
mutton, roasted, three and one-fourth hours; and mutton-suet, boiled,
four and one-half hours.
Good _ham_ may be made of any part of a carcass of mutton, though the
leg is preferable; and for this purpose it is cut in the English
fashion. It should be rubbed all over with good salt, and a little
saltpetre, for ten minutes, and then laid in a dish and covered with a
cloth for eight or ten days. After that, it should be slightly rubbed
again, for about five minutes, and then hung up in a dry place, say the
roof of the kitchen, until used. Wether mutton is used for hams, because
it is fat, and it may be cured any time from November to May; but
ram-mutton makes the largest and highest-flavored ham, provided it be
cured in spring, because it is out of season in autumn.
There is an infallible rule for ascertaining the _age_ of mutton by
certain marks on the carcass. Observe the color of the breast-bone, when
a sheep is dressed--that is, where the breast-bone is separated--which,
in a lamb, or before it is one year old, will be quite red; from one to
two years old, the upper and lower bone will be changing to white, and a
small circle of white will appear round the edges of the other bones,
and the middle part of the breast-bone will yet continue red; at three
years old, a very small streak of red will be seen in the middle of the
four middle bones, and the others will be white; and at four years, all
the breast-bone will be of a white or gristly color.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO MANUFACTURES. The products of sheep are not merely
useful to man; they provide his luxuries as well. The skin of sheep is
made into _leather_, and, when so manufactured with the fleece on, makes
comfortable mats for the doors of rooms, and rugs for carriages. For
this purpose, the best skins are selected, and such as are covered with
the longest and most beautiful fleece. _Tanned sheep-skin_ is used in
coarse book-binding. _White sheep-skin_, which is not tanned, but so
manufactured by a peculiar process, is used as aprons by many classes of
workmen, and, in agriculture, as gloves in the harvest; and, when cut
into strips, as twine for sewing together the leather coverings and
stuffings of horse-collars. _Morocco leather_ is made of sheep-skins, as
well as of goat-skins, and the bright red color is given to it by
cochineal. _Russia leather_ is also made of sheep-skins, the peculiar
odor of which repels insects from its vicinity, and resists the mould
arising from damp, the odor being imparted to it in currying, by the
empyreumatic oil of the bark of the birch-tree. Besides soft leather,
sheep-skins are made into a fine, flexible, thin substance, known by the
name of _parchment_; and, though the skins of all animals might be
converted into writing materials, only those of the sheep and the
she-goat are used for parchment. The finer quality of the substance,
called _vellum_, is made of the skins of kids and dead-born lambs; and
for its manufacture the town of Strasburgh has long been celebrated.
Mutton-suet is used in the manufacture of common _candles_, with a
proportion of ox-tallow. Minced suet, subjected to the action of
high-pressure steam in a digester, at two hundred and fifty or two
hundred and sixty degrees of Fahrenheit, becomes so hard as to be
sonorous when struck, whiter, and capable, when made into candles, of
giving very superior light. _Stearic candles_, the invention of the
celebrated Guy Lussac, are manufactured solely from mutton-suet.
Besides the fat, the intestines of sheep are manufactured into various
articles of luxury and utility, which pass under the absurd name of
_catgut_. All the intestines of sheep are composed of four layers, as in
the horse and cattle. The outer, or _peritoneal_ one, is formed of that
membrane, by which every portion of the belly and its contents is
invested, and confined in its natural and proper situation. It is highly
smooth and polished, and secretes a watery fluid which contributes to
preserve that smoothness, and to prevent all friction and concussion
during the different motions of the animal. The second is the _muscular_
coat, by means of which the contents of the intestines are gradually
propelled from the stomach to the rectum, thence to be expelled when all
the useful nutriment is extracted. The muscles, as in all the other
intestines, are disposed in two layers, the fibres of the outer coat
taking a longitudinal direction, and the inner layer being circular--an
arrangement different from that of the muscles of the [oe]sophagus, and
in both beautifully adapted to the respective functions of the tube. The
_submucous_ coat comes next. It is composed of numerous glands,
surrounded by cellular tissue, and by which the inner coat is
lubricated, so that there may be no obstruction to the passage of the
food. The _mucous_ coat is the soft villous one lining the intestinal
cavity. In its healthy state, it is always covered with mucus; and when
the glands beneath are stimulated, as under the action of physic, the
quantity of mucus is increased; it becomes of a more watery character;
the contents of the intestines are softened and dissolved by it; and by
means of the increased action of the muscular coat, which, as well as
the mucous one, feels the stimulus of the physic, the faeces are
hurried on more rapidly and discharged.
In the manufacture of some sorts of _cords_ from the intestines of
sheep, the outer peritoneal coat is taken off and manufactured into a
thread to sew intestines, and make the cords of rackets and battledores.
Future washings cleanse the guts, which are then twisted into
different-sized cords for various purposes; some of the best known of
which are whip-cords, hatter's cords for bow-strings, clock-maker's
cords, bands for spinning-wheels, now almost obsolete, and fiddle and
harp-strings. Of the last class, the cords manufactured in Italy are
superior in goodness and strength; and the reason assigned is, that the
sheep of that country are both smaller and leaner than the breeds most
in vogue in England and in this country. The difficulty in manufacturing
from other breeds of sheep lies, it seems, in making the treble strings
from the fine peritoneal coat, their chief fault being weakness; by
reason of which the smaller ones are hardly able to bear the stretch
required for the higher notes in concert-pitch, maintaining, at the same
time, in their form and construction, that tenuity or smallness of
diameter which is required in order to produce a brilliant and clear
tone.
[Illustration]