Domestic Animals / History and description of the horse, mule, cattle, sheep, swine, poultry and farm dogs; with directions for their management, breeding, crossing, rearing, feeding, and preparation for a profitable market; also their diseases and remedies. Together with full directions for the management of the dairy.

by Richard Lamb Allen

Uses.

Among the antediluvians, sheep were immolated for sacrificial offerings, and their fleeces probably furnished them with clothing. Since the deluge, their flesh has with all nations been used as a favorite food for man. By many of the rude, roving nations of the East, they are employed in carrying burdens.

Their milk is generally used by the uncivilized, and to some extent by the refined nations of Europe, not only as a beverage, but for making into cheese, butter, and curds. Job refers to its use, as do Isaiah and other of the Old Testament writers. Most of the Greek and Roman authors describe its general use and manufacture. The ewe's milk scarcely differs in appearance from that of the cow, but is generally thicker, and yields a pale, yellowish butter, that is always soft and soon becomes rancid. Culley remarks, "the cheese from their milk is exceedingly pungent, and for that reason is preferred by many to that from the cow." In Wales, the milk is mixed with that of the dairy, and makes a tart, palatable cheese. We have never seen it appropriated for dairy purposes in the United States, except by a few Welsh and Highland emigrants. The sheep is frequently employed in the dairy regions of this country, at the tread-mill or horizontal wheel, to pump the water, churn the milk, or perform other light domestic work.

The dignity and importance of the shepherd's vocation have ever been conspicuous. Abel, the supposed twin-brother of the first-born of the human race, was a "keeper of sheep;" and from this, it may be fairly inferred, that there is no animal which has so long been under the immediate control of man. Abraham and his descendants, as well as most of the ancient patriarchs, were shepherds. Job had 14,000 sheep. It is said of Rachel, the favored mother of the Jewish race, "she came with her father's sheep, for she kept them." The seven daughters of the priest of Midian, "came and drew water for their father's flocks." Moses, the statesman and lawgiver, who "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, kept the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law;" and David, the future monarch of Israel, the hero, poet, and divine, was a keeper of sheep. It was to shepherds, while "abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night," that the

birth of the Saviour was announced. The root of the Hebrew name for sheep, signifies fruitfulness, abundance, plenty; as indicating the blessings they were destined to confer on the human race. With the sacred writers, they were the chosen symbol of purity and the gentler virtues; they were the victims of propitiatory sacrifices; and finally, they became the type of redemption to fallen man. These may not be considered accidental allusions in a book, whose every feature is full of design.

Nor has the sheep been less the subject of eulogy and attention with profane writers. Among these, Homer and Hesiod, Virgil and Theocritus, introduced them with evident delight in their pastoral themes; while their heroes and demigods, Hercules and Ulysses, Æneas and Numa, carefully perpetuated them throughout their regal domains.

In modern times, they have commanded the attention of the most enlightened nations; and their prosperity has in no instance been independent of those useful animals, wherever wool and its manufactures have been regarded as essential staples. Spain and Portugal, for more than two centuries, were the most enterprising nations of Europe, and during that period, they excelled in the production and manufacture of wool. Flanders, for a time, was before England in the perfection of the arts and the enjoyments of life, and England then sent the little wool she raised to that country to be manufactured. Her politic sovereigns soon found this a losing game, and offered large bounties for the importation of artists and machinery. By a systematic and thorough course of legislation, which looked to the utmost protection and augmentation of wool and woollens, she has carried their production beyond any thing the world has ever seen. The small islands of Great Britain and Ireland, in addition to the support of their 26,000,000 of people, 15,000,000 of cattle, 2,250,000 horses, 18,000,000 swine, and innumerable smaller domestic animals, maintain over 40,000,000 sheep, worth $250,000,000; and besides manufacturing nearly all their fleeces, annually import nearly an equal amount from abroad. The sumptuary law for burying the dead in woollen, still occupies its place in their statute book. And beyond all question, England is the leading power of the nineteenth century, in the combination of all those qualities which constitute national greatness, civilization, and strength.