Sheep: their breeds, management, and diseases

Front matter

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ISF 375

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Chapter I

Tlie Zoolot'ical Cnaracter of the Sheep. — Its various Names, accordina to Au^e — Tli« Marks by which its Age may be known — De-sTiption of the Teeth. — Natural Age.

The sheep is classified by naturalists as belonging to the Order RuMiNANTiA ; the Tribe Caprid.e ; and the GexNus Ovis. Of tlie Ovis there are three varieties: the Ovrs Ammon or Arc:\i,i; the Ovis IMusmon; and the Ovis Aries, or Domestic Sheep. 1 he last variety only will form the subject of this work.

There is considerable resemblance between the ovis or sh.eep, and the capra or goat, another genus of the tribe capridae. The distinctions between them are briefly these: the horns of the sheep have a spiral direction, while those of the goat have a direction upward and backward; the sheep, except in one wild variety, has no beard, the goat is bearded; the goat, in his highest state of improvement, when he is made to produce wool of a fineness unequalled by the sheep, as in the Cashmere breed, is mainly, and always, externally covered with hair, while the hair on the sheep may, by domestication, be reduced to a few kemfs (coarse hair), or got rid of altogether; and finally, the pelt or skin of the goat has thickness very far exceeding that of the sheep.

NAMES OF THE SHEEP.

Agriculturists have applied different names to the sheep, according to the age and sex.

The male is called a rayn or tup. While with the mother he is denominated a Uip, or ram-lamb, a heeder, and sometimes a fur-lamh. From the time of his weaning, and until he is shorn, he has a variety of names : he is called a liog, a Jioggct, a hoggcrcl, a lamh-Jiog, a tup-hog, or a teg ; and; if castrated, a nrt/icr-7iog. After shearing, when probably he is a year and a half old, he is called a sltearing, a ihcar-hog, a diamond or dinmont ram, or tvp ; and a shearing iccther, &:c., when castrated. After the second shearing he is a two-shear ram, or tup, or wether ; at the expiration of another year he is a three-shear ram, &cc. ; the name always taking its date from the time of sheanng.

In many parts of the north of Englnnd and in Scotlaiid he is a ivn-lamh after he is salved, and until he is shorn, and then a tup-hog ?.iid, after that, a tup, or if castrated, a dinmont ^r a wedd'^.

b YOUATT OX SHEEP.

The female is a ewe, ov gimmer-lamh, until weaned; and tlien a ghnmer-Jiog, oi' cwc-lwg, ox teg, or sheeder eicc. After being shorn Bhe is a shearing ewe or gimmcr, sometimes a thcave, or doubletoothed etoe or teg ; and afterward a two-shear, a three-shear, or a four or six-tooth eice or theave. In some of the northern districts, ewes that are barren, or that have weaned their lambs, are called vild or ycld ewes.

THE AGE OF THE SHEEP.

The age of sheep is not reckoned from the time that they are dropped, but from the first shearing, although the first year may thus include fifteen or sixteen months, and sometimes more.

When there is doubt about the age, recourse is had to the teeth, for there is more uncertainty about the horn in sheep than in cattle ; and ewes that have been early bred from, will alwavs, according to the rings on the horn, appear a year older than others that have been longer kept from the ram.

THE TEETH.

Sheep have no teeth in the upper jaw, but the bars or ridges of the palate thicken as they approach the forepart of the mouth ihei'e also the dense, fibrous, elastic matter, of which they are constituted, becomes condensed, and forms a cushion or bed that covers the converse extremity of the upper jaw, and occupies the place of the upper incisor or cutting teeth, and partially discharges theii functions. The herbage is firmly held between the front teeth in the lower jaw and this pad, and thus partly bitten and partly torn asunder. The rolling motion of the head is a suflBcient proof of this.

The teeth of the sheep are the same in number as in the mouth of the ox. There are eight incisor or cutting-teeth in the forepart of the lower jaw, and six molaro in each jaw above and below, and on either side. The incisors are more admirably formed for grazing than in the ox. The oheep bites closer, and is destined to follow the ox, and gather nourishment where the ox would be unable to crop a single blade. The sheep, by his close bite, not only loosens the roots of the grass, and disposes them to spread, but by cutting off the short suckers and sproutings — a wise provision of natuie — causes the plant to throw out fresh, and more numerous, and stronger ones, and thus improves and increases the value of the crop. Nothing will moie expeditiously or more effectually make a thick, permanent pasture than its being occasionally and closely eaten down by sheej).

In order to enable the sheep to bite thus close, the upper lip is deeply divided, and free from hair about the centre of it. The part nf the tooth above the gum is not only, as in other animals, covered with enamel, to enable it to bear and to preserve a sharpened edge, but the enamel on the upper part rises from the bone of the tooth nearly a quarter of an inch, and presenting a convex surface outward, and a concave within, forms a little scoop or gouge of wonderful executioti.

The mouth of the; lamb newly dropped is either without incisor teeth, or it has two. The teeth rapidly succeed to each other, and

THE TEETH.

before the animal is a month old he has the whole of the eight. They continue to grow with his growth until he is about fourteen or sixteen mouths old. In the accompanying cut, fig. 1 will give a fair Fig. 1. Fi^'. 2. Fi". 3.

Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6

representation d£ the mouth of a sheep at this age. Then, with tlie same previous process of diminution as in cattle, or carried to a still greater degree, the two central teeth are shed, and attain their full growth when the sheep is two years old. Fig. 2 gives a delineation of the mouth at that age.

In examining a flock of sheep, however, there will often be very considerable difference in the teeth of the hogs, or the one-shears; in some measure to be accounted for by a difference in the time of lambing, and likewise by the general health and vigor of the animal. There will also be a material difference in different flocks, attributable to the good or bad keep which they have had.

Those fed on good land, or otherwise well kept, will take the start of others that have been half-starved, and renew their teeth some months sooner that these. There are, however excep tions to this ; Mr. Price says that a Romney Marsh teg was exhib ited at the show fair at Ashford, weighing 210 pounds, and the largest ever shown there of that breed, and that had not one of his permanent broad teeth.

There are also irregularities in the times of renewing the teeth, not to be accounted for by either of these circumstances ; in fact, not to be accounted for by any knoAvn circumstance relating to the breed or the keep of the sheep. The same author remarks, that he has known tups have four broad and permanent teeth, when, according to their age, they ought to have had but two. Mr. Culley, in his excellent work on "Live Stock," says: "A friend of mine and an eminent breeder, Mr. Charge, of Cleasby, a few years ago showed a shearing-tup at Richmond, in Yorkshire, for the premium given by the Agricultural Society there, which had six broad teeth ; in consequence of which the judges rejected his tup, although confessedly the best sheep, because they believed him to be more than a shearing : however, Mr. Charge afterward proved to their satisfnc tion tliat his tup was no more than a shearing." Mr. Price, on tli«f

Other hand, states that he " once saw a yearling vvetlier, which became quite fat with only one tooth, that had worked a cavity in the upper jaw, the corresponding central tooth having been accidentally lost."

The want of improvement in sheep which is occasionally observed, and which can not be accounted for by any deficiency or change of food, may sometimes be justly attributed to the tenderness of the mouth when the permanent teeth are protruding thi'ough the gums.

Between two and three years old, the next two incisors are shed ; and when the sheep is actually three years old, the four central teeth are fully grown (see fig. 3) : at four years old, he has six teeth fully grown (see fig. 4) : and at five years old all the teeth are perfectly developed (see fig. 6). This is one year before the horse or the ox can be said to be full-mouthed. The sheep is a much shorter-lived animal than the horse, and does not often attain the usual age of the ox.

The careless examiner may sometimes be deceived with regard to the four-year-old mouth. He will see the teeth perfectly developed, no diminutive ones at the sides, and the mouth apparently full; and then, without giving himself the trouble of counting the teeth, he will conclude that the sheep is five years old. A process of displacement, as well as of diminution, has taken place here : the remaining outside milk-teeth are not only shi-unk to less than a fourth part of their original size, but the four-year-old teeth have grown before them and perfectly conceal them, unless the mouth is completely opened. Figure 5 represents this deceptive appearance.

After the permanent teeth have all appeared and are fully grown, there is no criterion as to the age of the sheep. In most cases, the teeth remain sound for one or two years, and then, at uncertain intervals, either on account of the hard work in which they have been employed, or from the natural effect of age, they begin to loosen and fall out; or, by reason of their natural slenderness, they are broken off. When favorite ewes, that have been kept for breeding, begin, at six or seven years old, to lose condition, their mouths should be carefully examined. If any of the teeth are loose, they should be extracted, and a chance given to the animal to show how far, by browsing early and late, she may be able to make up for the diminished number of her incisors. It will not unfreqjiently happen that ewes with broken teeth, and some with all the incisors gone, will keep pace in condition with the best in the flock ; but they must be well taken care of in the \\ inter, and, indeed, nursed to an extent that would scarcely answer the farmer's purpose to adopt as a general rule, in order to prevent them from declining to such a degi'ee as would make it very difficult afterward to fatten them for the butcher. It may certainly be taken as a general rule that when sheep become bi-oken-mouthed, they begin to decline.

It will probably appear, when the subjects of breeding and grazing are discussed, that it will be the most profitable course to fatten the ewes when they are five, or, at most, six years old, and supply their places with th.e most likely shearing-ewes. When a sheep gets much older than this, it begins to decline in its wool, and certainly

STRUCTURE OF THE SKIM. 9

loses mucn of its propensity to fatten ; while, in the usual system of sheep-husbandry, the principal profit consists in early and quick fattening.

Causes of which the farmer is utterly ignorant, or over which he has no control, will sometimes hasten the loss of the teeth. One thing, however, is certain — that close feeding, causing additional exercise of the teeth, does wear them down; and that the sheep of the farmers who stock unusually and unseasonably hard, lose their teeth much sooner than others do.

NATURAL AGE.

The natural age of the sheep is about ten years, to which ago they will breed and thrive well ; though there are instances of their breeding at the age of fifteen, and of living twenty years.

Chapter II

Tlie Stracture of the Skin. — Anatomy of the Wool. — Hairy Coveriup of the Primitive Sheep. — The gradual Change froinHair to Wool. — The Yolk. — the Form of the Fibre. — The Properties of Wool. — Fineness. — Influence ol Temperature. — Pasture. — Trueness. — Soundness. — Softness.

L\ order that the qualities and I'elative value of the different breeds of sheep may be duly estimated, it will be advantageous to devote a few pages to the consideration of the structui'e, varieties, and uses, of wool.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE SKIN.

The skin of the sheep, and of animals generally, is composed of three textures. Externally is the cuticle, or scarf-skin, which is thin, tough, devoid of feeling, and pierced by innumerable minute holer, through which pass the fibres of the wool and the insensible perspi ration. It seems to be of a scaly texture ; but this is not so evident in the sheep as in many other animals, on account of a peculiar substance, the yolk, which is placed on it, to nourish and protect the roots of the wool. It is, however, plainly enough to be seen in the scab and other cutaneous eruptions to which the sheep is liable.

Below this is the rete mucosum, a soft structure ; its fibres having scarcely more consistence than mucilage, and being with great difficulty separated from the skin beneath. This seems to be placed as a defence to the terminations of the blood-vessels and nerves of the skin, and these are, in a manner, enveloped and covered by it. The col >r of the skin, and probably that of the hair or wool also, is determined by the rete mucosum ; or, at least, the hair and wool are of the same color as this substance.

Beneath is the cutis, or true skin, composed of innumerable minuto fibres crossing each other in every direction ; highly elastic in order to fit closely to the t arts beneath, and to yield to the various motions

10 TOl'A^TT ON SHEEP.

of the body ; and dense and firm in its structure, that it may resist external injury. Blood-vessels and nerves, countless in number, pierce it, and appear on its surface under the form o? pajjiUcp,, or minute eminences, while, througli thousands of little orifices, the exhalant absorbents pour out the superfluous or redundant fluid. The true skin is composed principally or almost entirely of gelatine ; so ^hat, although it may be dissolved by long-continued boiling, it is insoluble in water at the common temperature. This organization seems to have been given to it, not only for the sake of its preservation while on the living animal, but that it may afterward become useful to man.

The substance of the hide combines with the tanning principle, and is converted into leather.

The skin of the sheep seldom undergoes the full process of tan ning, but it is prepared in a j^eculiar way, and used as a commonei sort of binding for books, or it is manufactured into parchment, and thus, on account of its durable nature, becomes most valuable as connected with the disposal and fiecurity of our property. Some of the foreign lambskins are much &:ought after, as a species of ornamental clothing, as well as on account of their comfort and warmth, and are prepared with the wool remaining on them.

ANATOMY OF THE WOOL.

On the skin of most animals is placed a covering of feathei-, fur, hair, or wool. They are all essentially the same in compo' ition, being made up of an animal substtmce resembling coagulateo albumen, and sulphur, silica, carbonate and phosphate of lime, and oxydes of iron and manganese.

Wool is not confined to the sheep. The under-hair of some goats is not only finer than the fleece of any sheep, but it occasionally has the crisped appearance of wool. It is, in fact, wool of different qualities in different breeds : in some rivalling or excelling that of the Bheep, but in others very coarse.

A portion of wool is found also in many other animals, as in the deer, elk, the oxen of Tartary and Hudson's bay, the gnoo, the camel, many of the fur-clad animals, the sable, the polecat, and in several species of the dog.

HAIRY COVERING OF THE PRIMITIVE SHEEP.

Judging fi'om the mixture of wool and hair in the coat of most animals, and the relative situation of these materials, it is not improbable that such was the character of the fleece of the primitive sheep, It has been asserted that tlie primitive sheep was entirely covei-ed with hair, but is doubtless incorrect. There are at the present day varieties of the sheep occupying extensive districts, that are clothed outwardly with hair of different degrees of fineness and sleekness; and underneath the external coat is a softer, shorter, and closer one, that answei-s to the description of fur, according to most travellers, but v/hich really possesses all the characters of wool. It is therefore highly improbable that the sheep, which has now become, by culti-

CHANGE PROM HAIR TO WOOL YOLK. 11

ration, par excdh?ire, the icnol-hcar'rng aivmnl, should, in any <;ountry, at any time, hiive ever been entirely destitute of wool. Sheep of almost every variety have at times been in the gardens of the Zooloirical Society of London, but there has not been one on which a portion of crisped wool, although exceedingly small, has not been found at the bottom of the hair.

In all the regions over which the patriarchs wandered, and extendng northward through the greater part of Europe and Asia, the Bueep is externally covered with hair, but underneath is a fine, short, downy wool, from which the hair is easily separated. This is the case with the sheep at the cape of Good Hope, and also in South America.

In the "American Philosophical Transactions," vol. v., page 153, the Jamaica sheep is thus described : " The Jarnaica sheep forms a distinct variety, altogether different from any other I have ever seen. The hair is a substance sui generis, and is as different from the kemp and stichet hair of Europe as from the long tough hair of the Rus sians and other hairy breeds. The wool, too, is as different from that of other sheep-wool as the hair; it is finer than any other, not excepting the Shetland breed, although I should suspect that it is scarcely BO soft." It was, however, once asserted of this sheep, that it was altogether devoid of wool ; and it has been still more lately and strangely maintained that British sheep, transported to Jamaica, v.^ould speedily lose their woolly coat, and become altogether hairy.

THE GRADUAL CHANGE FROM HAIR TO WOOL.

The change from hair to wool, though much influenced by temperature, has been chiefly effected by cultivation. Wherever these hairy sheep are now found, the management of that animal is in a most disgraceful state ; and among the cultivated sheep the remains of this ancient hairy covering exist, to any great extent, among those ulone that are comparatively neglected or abandoned.

THE YOLK.

. The filament of the wool has scarcely pushed itself through the Dore of the skin, when it has to penetrate through another and singular substance, which, from its adhesiveness and color, is called the YOLK. It is found in greatest quantity about the breast and shoulders — the very parts that produce the best, and healthiest, and most abundant wool— and in proportion as it extends to any considerable degree over other parts, the wool is then improved. It differs in quantity in different breeds: it is very abundant on the Merinoes ; it is sufficiently plentiful on most of the southern breeds, either to assist in the production of the wool, or to defend the sheep from the inclemency of the weather; but in the northern districts, where the cold is more intense, and the yolk of wool is deficient, a substitute for it is souGjht by smearing the sheep with a mixture of tar and oil or butter. Where there is a deficiency of yolk, the fibre of the wool is dry, and harsh, and weak, and the whole fleece becomes thin and bairy; wliere the natural quantity of i»^ is found, the wool is soft, anJ

IS YOUATT ON SHEEP.

oily, and plentiful, and strong. Precisely such, in a less degree, it the effect of the salving in suppling, and strengthening, and increasing the quantity of the wool.

It is not the inspissated perspiration of the animal ; it is not composed of matter that has heen accidently picked up and that has lodged in the wool ; but it is a peculiar secretion from the glands of the skin, destined to be one of the agents in the nourishment of th« wool, and, at the same time, by its adhesiveness, to mat the wo(d to gether, and form a secure defence from the wet and cold.

The medium quantity of yolk on a Hereford, Shi-opshire, or Sus sex sheep, is about half the fleece ; and this is the customary allow ance to the wool-buyer, if the fleece has been sold without washing

A celebrated French chymist, M. Vauquelin, has made various ex periments on the composition of the yolk of wool ; the result is as follows : It is composed — first, of a soapy matter with a basis of potash, which formed the greater part of it ; second, a small quantity of carbonate of potash ; third, a perceptible quantity of acetate of potash ; fourth, lime, whose state of combination he was unacquainted with ; fifth, an atom of muriate of potash ; sixth, an animal oil, to which he attributed the peculiar odor of tlie yolk ; and, in conclusion, he was of opinion that all these materials were essential to the yolk, and not found in it by accident, for he analyzed the yolk in a great number of samples, as well Spanish as French, and found them in all.

The yolk being a true soap, soluble in water, it is easy to account for the comparative ease with which the sheep that have the natural proportion of it are washed in a running stream. There is, however, a small quantity of fatty matter in the fleece, which is not in combination with the alkali, and which, remaining attached to the wool, keeps it a little glutinous, notwithstanding the most careful washing.

THE FORM OF THE FIBRE.

The fibre of the wool having penetrated the skin and escaped from the yolk, is of a circular form, generally larger toward the extremity and also toward the root, and in some instances veiy considerably so.

The filaments of white wool, when cleaned from grease, are semi transparent; their surface in some places is beautifully polished, in others curiously incrusted, and they reflect the rays of light in a very pleasing manner. When viewed by the aid of a powerful achromatic microscope, the central part of the fibre has a singularly glittering appearance. Very irregularly-placed minuter filaments are somelimes seen branching from the main trunk, like boughs from the principal stem. This exterior polish varies mucii in different wools, and in wools from the same breed of sheep at different times. When the animal is in good condition and the fleece healthy, the appearance of the fibre is really brilliant ; but when the state of the constitution is bad, the fibre has a dull appearance, and either a wan, pale light, or sometimes scarcely any, is reflected.

Asa general rule, the filament is most transparent in the best and most useful wools, whether long or short. It increases with the ina

PROPERTIES OF WOOL FINENESS. 13

provemei/t( f die breed, and the fineness and healthiness of the fleece; yet it must be acknowledged that some wools have different degrees of transparency and opacity, which do not appear to affect their value and utility. It is, however, the difference of transparency 'n the same fleece, or in the same filament, that is chiefly to oe noticed as impairing the value of the wool.

THE PROPERTIED OF WOOL.

A consideration of the most important properties of wool, now taken in a very general way, and to be hereafter applied to the difl^ei'- ent breeds of sheep, can not be better introduced than in the words of Young, to whom the agriculturist, whatever department of husbandry may chiefly occupy his attention, is much indebted. He is speaking of the size of the fibre, or the fineness or coarseness of wool. " Fine and coarse," says he, " are but vague and general descriptions of wool ; all fine fleeces have some coai'se wool, and all coarse fleeces some fine. 1 shall endeavor, for the information of my readers, to distinguish the various qualities of wool in the order in which they are esteemed and preferred by the manufacturer. First, fineness with close ground, that is, thick-matted ground. Second, pareness. Third, straight-haired when broken by drawino-. Fourth, elasticity, rising after compression in the hand. Fifth, staple not too long. Sixth, coloi*. Seventh, what coarse is in it to be very coarse. Eighth, tenacity. Ninth, not much pitch-mark : but this is no other disadvantage than the loss of weight in scouring. The bad or disagreeable pi'operties are — thin, grounded, toppy, curly-haired, and, if in a sorted state, little in it that is very fine ; a tender staple, no elasticity, many dead white hairs, very yolky. Those who buy wool for combing and other light goods that do not want milling, wish to find length of staple, fineness of hair, whiteness, tenacity, pureness, elasticity, and not too many pitch-marks." These supposed good and bad qualities will not be taken in the order here enumerated, for the propriety of some of them may admit of doubt ; few, however, will be entii'ely omitted.

FINENESS.

That property which first attracts attention, and which is of greater importance than any other, is the fineness of the pile — the quantity of fine wool which a fleece yields, and the degree of that fineness. Of the absolute fineness little can be said. It varies to a very considerable degree in different parts of the same fleece, and the diameter of the same fibre is often exceedingly different at the extremity and the centre. The micrometer has sometimes indicated that the diameter of the former is five times as much as that of the latter; ana, consequently, that a given length of pile taken from the extremity would weigh twenty-five times as much as the same length taken from the centre and cleansed from all yolk and grease.

That fibre may be considered as coarse whose diameter is more than the five-hundredth part of an inch ; in some of the most valuaole samples of Saxony wool it has i.'jt exceeded the nine-hundrodtb part of ail Inch ; yet in some animals, but whose wool has not yet been used for manufacturing purposes, it is less than one twelvehundredth part of an inch.

THE INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE.

The extremities of the wool, and frequently those portions which are near to the root, are larger than the intermediate parts. The extremity of the fibre has generally the greatest bulk of all. It ia the product of summer soon afcer shearing-time; when the secretion of the matter of the wool is increased, and when the pores of the skin are relaxed and open, and permit a larger fibre to protrude. The portion near the root is the growth of spring, when the weather is getting warm ; and the intermediate part is the offspring of winter, when under the influence of the cold the pores of the skin contract, and permit only a finer hair to escape.

If, however, the animal is well fed, the diminution of the bulk of the fibre will not be followed by weakness or decay, but in proportion as the pile becomes fine, the value of the fleece will be increased ; but if cold and starvation should go hand in hand, the woolly fibre will not only diminish in bulk, but in health, and strength, and worth.

The variations in the diameter of the wool in different parts of the fibre will also curiously correspond with the degree of heat at the time the respective portions were produced. The fibre of the wool, and the record of the meteorologist will singularly agree,. if the variations in temperature are sufficiently distant from each other for any appi-eciable part of the fibre to grow.

It will follow from this, that the natural tendency to jDroduce wool of a certain fibre being the same, sheep in a hot climate will yield a comparatively coarse wool, and those in a cold climate will carry a finer, but at the same time a closer and a warmer fleece. In pi'opoition to the coarseness of the fleece will generally be its openness, and its inability to resist either cold or wet; while the coat of softer, smaller, more pliable wool, will admit of no interstices between its fibres, and will bid defiance to frost and storms.