Home Life in All Lands—Book III—Animal Friends and Helpers

by Charles Morris

THE WOOL-CLAD SHEEP

Long, long ago, hundreds of years before men began to write history, perhaps before they had tamed any other animal, the woolly creature called the sheep began to share the home-life of man. In the first pages of the Bible we find its name. Abel, the second son of Adam and Eve, was a keeper of sheep before he was killed by his brother Cain. It may have been kept in very early times in all parts of the earth, for the sheep can live in all climates, from hot to cold, and its meat and wool are of great use for food and clothing.

Also it is easily tamed, and in the ages of the past it became so used to being taken care of that it has long forgotten how to take care of itself. Thus the sheep that crop the grass in our fields have come to be stupid animals. But this is not the case with the wild sheep which are found in various parts of the earth. These are quite able to fight their own battles and are sharp-witted, like most wild animals.

It is only the female sheep, the ewe, that is so dull. We all know that the male sheep, the ram, is much more wide-awake. These often have very large horns, and the wild ram knows quite well how to take care of himself and his family. They will run from danger if they have to, but if cornered can make a very good fight. Even one of our field rams has at times shown itself a good match for a bull. While much smaller in size, it is far more active and can hit a very hard blow with its bony head and big horns.

Have you ever seen a fighting ram? One of them has been known to throw a bull to the ground at the first rush. It can fight dogs, too, and is always ready to defend itself and its flock. Rams also fight one another, and when two of them come together at full run, their heads crack like the sound of a musket and their hind parts are lifted into the air. Many sheep have no horns, and these are not so fond of fighting, as the horns are a great help to them.

Men keep sheep for two things, their wool and their meat. The same is the case with cattle, which are also kept for two things, their milk and their meat. All over the earth people are fond of mutton, or the meat of the sheep, while the wool is used wherever warm clothes are needed. In some cold countries the skin of the sheep, with its woolly coat, is used as a cloak and is found a warm covering.

The wool of wild sheep is short and lies below an outside coat of long, straight hair. But this hair is lost in the tame animals and a coat of long, thick wool takes its place. Wool, you should know, differs from hair in having a scaly surface, which causes its fibres to cling together. This makes it good for twisting into yarn and weaving into cloth, also for felting, as in the making of felt hats and rugs.

Of course very many of you have seen the sheep in the field, walking slowly about all day long, cropping, cropping, cropping, as if eating were all it lived for. This is the case all over the earth, for sheep are the most common of our farm animals and are kept in vast multitudes in various countries. So tame and gentle are they that the shepherd and his dog can easily keep a large flock in order. He has to guard them in some countries against wolves and also against sheep-killing dogs.

Cattle and Sheep of the Scottish Highlands

The sheep is a mountain animal, not a native of the level plains like the horse and the ox. The wild sheep do not live on level ground but among the lofty hills and are often found in very high places. We have one species in our own country, the Big-horn or Rocky Mountain Sheep, which can climb over the roughest cliffs and plunge down steep places without hurting itself. There are other species in Asia and Africa, with the same habits.

From this we know why tame sheep are so fond of hill climbing and why they do so well in such rough regions as the Highlands of Scotland. Young lambs are very fond of climbing every little hill they see. When feeding, sheep like mountain sides better than they do plains. Here they nibble away at the short, fine grasses, which they like better than any other food.

You may have read of troubles and fights between the shepherds and cowboys of our western plains. This comes from the close nibbling of the sheep, which cuts the grass down to its roots and leaves no food for the cattle. On this account the cattlemen hate the sheep-men and in some cases kill large flocks of sheep. The sheep are said to do harm also on the mountain sides, clipping the grass so close with their sharp teeth that the rains carry away the soil, and leave none for the trees to take root in.

There are a number of countries in which sheep are kept in mighty flocks. These are the United States, Europe, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. There are numbers of them also in Asia and Africa and here there are several queer kinds, which would seem very strange to us. The oddest of these is the fat-tailed sheep. The tail of this animal grows to a very great size and has been known to weigh 70 or 80 pounds. It is a big bunch of fat of which the people of those countries are very fond. In some cases, to keep it from being hurt by dragging on the ground, little wagons are used and the sheep go about dragging their tail behind them in a sort of baby carriage.

There is another kind with a huge hump of fat on its hind-quarters and hardly any tail at all. On the other hand the Circassian sheep has a tail so long that it trails behind on the grass and is covered with fine, long wool. There is a kind of sheep in Africa with very long legs and hanging ears, and in several places they have odd kinds of horns. Those of the sheep of Wallachia make a complete turn and then rise up from the head to a great length. The Iceland sheep and some of those of Russia has three, four, and even five horns.

In Europe sheep have been kept during many centuries and a number of useful breeds are now to be found in the different countries, some with fine, thick wool, some with rich, juicy meat. All of the sheep of this country were brought from Europe, and many of the best breeds are kept here, among them the Southdown of England, which is of value for its splendid mutton.

But nearly the whole of our sheep came from the Merinos of Spain, a kind of sheep which has been kept in that country from the past ages on account of its fine, soft wool. The Merino may now be found all over America and Europe and also in Australia, so that it is the most common kind of sheep on the earth. The first of them were brought to our country in 1801 and we have now many millions of their descendants.

There is much more that could be said about sheep. No meat is more common on our tables than mutton and in all cold countries woolen clothing is worn. In Bokhara, a country of Central Asia, is a sheep which yields the valuable astrakhan fur. This is not taken from the full-grown sheep, but from the lambs. When very young these bear a short, fine wool, curled all over them in small locks. To make it curl better they are sewn up, while very young, in another skin or a piece of coarse linen. Long hairs soon grow through the wool and to prevent this the lambs are killed when they are only a few days old.

The Merino Ram, the Great Wool Bearer

There is still another use to which sheep are put. This is the making of cheese. There is a breed in the south of France which are milked and from their milk is made the famous Roquefort cheese. In making this layers of moist bread crumbs, ground to powder, are placed between layers of the milk curds. This mixture is pressed and salted and then kept for a month or more in dark mountain caves. There the cheese ripens and gets the special flavor for which it is liked.