SHEEP.

These are the most profitable of all domestic animals. The original cost

is trifling, and the expense of raising and keeping is so light, and the

sale of meat, tallow, hide, and wool, is so ready, that sheep-growing is

always profitable. So important has this always been considered, that in

all ages of the world, there have been shepherds, whose sole business it

has been to tend their flocks. Were the flesh of sheep and lambs more

extensively substituted for that of swine, in this country, it would be

equally healthy and economical. American farmers do not attach to

sheep-growing half the importance it deserves. We recommend a thorough

study of the subject, in the use of the facilities afforded by the

writings of practical men. We can only give the outlines of the subject

in a work like this. A theory has been scientifically established by

Peter A. Brown LL. D. of Philadelphia, in which it is shown that all

sheep are divided into two species, Hair-bearing and Wool-bearing. These

species crossed, produce sheep that bear both wool and hair, as the two

never change. The hair makes blankets that will not shrink. The wool is

good for making fulled cloth. Blankets made from the fleeces of sheep

that are the product of the cross of these two species, will shrink in

some places and not in others, just as the hair or wool prevails. It is

also true that the hair-bearing sheep delight in low, moist situations

and sea-breezes, while the wool-bearing sheep does best on high, airy,

and dry land. These fleeces all pass as wool, but the microscope shows a

marked and permanent difference, and one can easily learn to distinguish

it at once, by the touch and with the naked eye. This is thrown out here

to induce a thorough examination of the whole subject. There are three

staples of wool, short, three inches long, middling, five inches, and

long, eight inches. Varieties of sheep are numerous. We shall only

mention a few. The question of the best breeds has been warmly

controverted. We have no disposition to try to settle it. The question

of the best variety must depend upon locality and design. If the wool is

the object, then the Vermont Merino for the North, and the pure Saxony

for the South, are evidently the best. If located near large cities,

where the flesh is the main object, then the large-bodied, long-wooled

breeds are much preferable. Among those much esteemed we note the

following:--

The _Cotswold_ mature young, and the flesh will vary in weight from

fifteen to thirty pounds per quarter. The _New Leicester_ is less hardy

than the Cotswold, but heavier, weighing from twenty-four to thirty-six

pounds per quarter. The _Teeswater sheep_, improved by a cross with the

Leicester, is considered valuable. The _Bampton_ is one of the very best

grown in England. Fat ewes average twenty pounds per quarter, and

wethers from thirty to thirty-five pounds. The _Sussex_, _Hampshire,

and Shropshire_ varieties of the Down sheep, are all highly esteemed.

The _Leicester_ are very valuable. An ordinary fleece weighs from three

to five pounds. Mr. Joseph Beers of New Jersey had one that sheared

thirteen pounds at one time, and the live weight of the sheep was 378

pounds.

There are _French_, _Silesian_, and _Spanish Merinoes_, much esteemed in

Vermont and elsewhere. The average weight of a flock of ewes of French

merinoes after shearing was 103 pounds. Their fleeces averaged twelve

pounds and eight ounces. The fleece of one buck of the same flock

weighed twenty pounds and twelve ounces.

[Illustration: The French Merino Ram.]

The _Silesian Merinoes_ are smaller, but produce beautiful fleeces. In a

flock of nineteen ewes, the average weight of fleece was seven pounds

and ten ounces, and that of the buck weighed ten and a half pounds.

A large flock of _Spanish Merinoes_ yielded an average of a little over

five pounds of well-washed wool. All these varieties are valuable for

wool. The wool of the pure Saxony sheep, however, is best.

The _Tartar sheep_, called also Shanghae and Broadtail, is a

recently-imported breed, of great promise for mutton. Their fleece is a

fine silky hair, making fine blankets that will not shrink, but not good

for fulled cloths. The ewes are remarkably prolific, producing sometimes

five lambs at a time, and often twice a year. One ewe bore seven lambs

in one year, all living and being healthy. The flesh is of the highest

quality. This may stand at the head of all our sheep as a market animal.

The cross of this with our common sheep has proved fine. They need to be

further tested in this country. A new kind of sheep has also been

imported from Africa, within a few years; a variety unknown to

naturalists, but having some points in common with the Tartar sheep.

_Diseases of Sheep._--There are several that have been very troublesome,

but which experience has enabled us to cure. _Scours_ is often very

injurious. A little common soot from the chimney, or pulverized

charcoal, is a sure remedy. Mix it with water, not so thick as to make

it difficult to swallow, and give a teaspoonful every two hours, and

relief will soon be experienced.

_Water in the head_ is a disease caused by long exposure to wet and

cold. This is prevented by a small blanket on the back of the sheep. The

wool on the backs of sheep will be seen to be often parted, exposing the

skin. Water falling on the back will penetrate the wool and run down,

and wet and chill the whole body. A small cotton blanket, fifteen inches

wide, and long enough to reach from the neck to the tail, fastened to

its place by tying to the wool, and painted on the outside, will cause

all the water to run off, saving the health of the sheep, and causing

him to require less food. In the cold, wet season, every sheep should

have such a blanket; they would cost three or four cents each, and be

worth many times their cost in the saving of feed for the animals. The

more comfortable an animal is, the less food will he require. Applying

tar above the noses of sheep at shearing, that they may be compelled to

smell it and eat a little for a long time, is considered favorable to

their general health, and a preventive of rot.

The foot-rot, in cattle, sheep, and hogs, is a prevalent disease. Boys

walking the path, barefoot, where such diseased animals frequently pass,

may contract the disease. This is always cured by washing in blue

vitriol. Most cases are cured by one application, and the most confirmed

by two or three. Make a narrow passage, where only one animal can pass

at once. Put in a trough twelve feet long, twelve inches wide, and as

many deep. Put in that fifty pounds of blue vitriol and fill with water,

throwing a little straw over the top. Cause the diseased animals to pass

through that, and they will be cured. This is thought to be an

invariable remedy. If sheep do not appear healthy on lowland pasture,

give them small quantities of fine charcoal and salt, and they will be

as healthy as on the hills. A little salt for sheep is useful during the

whole year. The health of sheep is injured more in fall than at any

other season; they are very apt to be neglected at the beginning of

winter. They grow poor rapidly when their green feed first fails; a

little hay and grain and a few roots then will keep them up, prevent

disease, and make it less expensive to keep them through the winter.

Feed in racks or troughs, when they can not get their food under foot,

and as far as practicable, under shelter, and in a warm place. It is

much cheaper, and keeps the sheep much more healthy. They should have

fresh water, where they can drink, two or three times a day. Salt, mixed

with wood-ashes and pulverized charcoal, should also be constantly

within their reach. A few beets, carrots, or parsnips, are always

valuable. Some green feed is very essential for ewes, for some time

before the yeaning season. Corn is good for fattening sheep; but, for

increasing the wool, it is not half as valuable as beans. Good

bean-straw is better than hay. Corn-fodder is excellent. The product of

one and a half acres of land, sowed with corn, will winter, in fine

condition, one hundred sheep--the corn sowed the 20th of June, and cut

up after it has begun to lose its weight slightly, and shocked up

closely, bound round the top with straw, and then allowed to stand till

wanted for feeding. To have healthy sheep, do not use a ram under two,

or over six or seven years old, and raise no lambs from unhealthy ewes

or rams. The expense of keeping sheep, as all other animals, is much

less when they are kept warm. Much feed is wasted in keeping up animal

heat, which would be saved by warm quarters.

Sheep-manure is better than any other, except that of fowls. No other

parts with its qualities by exposure so slowly. Some farmers save all

labor of carting and spreading sheep-manure, by having movable wire

fences, and putting their sheep on one acre for a few days, and then

removing to another. One hundred sheep may thus be made to manure an

acre of land in ten days, better than any ordinary dressing of other

manure. We should prefer carefully collecting and saving it under cover,

mixed with muck or loam, and apply where and when we choose. Keeping a

suitable number of sheep on a farm is very important in keeping up the

farm. A farm devoted to grain or vegetables, without a suitable number

of animals, usually runs down.

The time when lambs should be allowed to come is important. We much

prefer letting them come when they please, if we have warm quarters, and

can take a little extra care of them. This will give a larger growth,

and furnish large lambs for market, at a season of the year when they

are most desired, and bring the greatest price. For those who will not

take the necessary pains, let them come when the weather has become warm

and grass plenty. Sometimes a ewe loses her lamb, and you wish her to

raise one of another ewe's, that has two. To make a ewe own another's

lamb, take off the skin of her dead lamb, and bind it on to the other

lamb, and she will smell it and own the lamb; after which the skin may

be removed.

Sheep-culture is a subject to which farmers should give increased

attention, until the average weight of sheep in the United States shall

become one third greater than at present, and until there shall be ten

sheep to one of all we have at present.