Ambrose Blacklock

“ The colour of an animal envelope is never at variance with the tints of surrounding objects. A painter, for example, would not place a flower or animal of brilliant hue amidst the monotonous aspect of an arctic landscape; neither would he picture the faintly-tinted beings of a polar latitude, as surrounded by the warm and flashy colouring characteristic of an oriental climate. As temperature, then, determines in a marked degree the colour and dimensions of every animal, such variations render the division of living beings into races and varieties, a matter of necessity. ”

“ Now, though such immediate injury cannot result to a flock from retention on a particular pasture, owing to the variety of sustenance being considerable, yet proportional harm will ensue sufficient to induce us not to repeat the risk. Nature, the best of guides in all that relates to the protection of her creatures, is no where more pointed in her directions than on this head. A necessity for a variety of food, and a desire to secure it, are implanted in the disposition of every animal; and where is the creature more prone to extensive rambles than the sheep? ”

“ The general laws by which animal bodies are governed, and the changes to which they are rendered liable by their subserviency to man, are here—and for the first time as regards the sheep—gone into at considerable length. Too little value is in general attached to such inquiries; though, when endeavouring to improve a domesticated race, we must be perfectly aware, that without this species of knowledge we are like a ship at sea without the guiding aids of the rudder and the compass, and liable to be carried in the right or in the wrong direction only as chance directs. ”

“ No subject ever called forth so much random controversy, and no evil has ever so clearly shown itself as such; yet it is only recently, that people have opened the intellectual eye to the dangers of a practice, against which the ablest pens were long and vainly blunted. The object of breeding in-and-in is to strengthen good qualities and get rid of bad ones, as speedily as possible; and it is plain, that if we happen to select animals with slight imperfections, these imperfections will become hereditary, and will go on assuming a worse and worse type till the breed be destroyed. ”

“ The sheep of Iceland are content during severe winters to feed, and be preserved, on messes of chopped fish-bones, being all that the ingenuity of their masters can provide in the way of a precarious sustenance. During the long continuance of snow-storms, when the herbage is beyond the reach of their utmost efforts, sheep are known to devour the wool on each other's backs, and, in some instances to acquire a relish for this unnatural food, which adheres to them through life. ”

“ Their fineness and abundance have been ascribed by many to the sweet short grass on most of our downs and pastures, and to the sheep having the privilege of feeding, all the year round, without being shut in folds; but it cannot be denied, that, though food and climate may have much concern in the matter, the energetic industry and persevering attention with which an Englishman devotes himself to the attainment of an object, have tended more than any other circumstance to the advancement of our wools, and woollen manufactures, and to the consequent prosperity of our island. ”

“ Thus all human beings belong only to one species, which may, however, be divided into five races, and these again into an infinity of varieties. The differences between a race and a variety are, that the latter is a subdivision of the former, and that in the former the modifications are more profound, the changes not being confined to the surface, but extending to the frame-work of the body; whereas, to constitute a variety, nothing more is necessary than the superficial influence of heat and light on the skin, and its appendages the hairs. ”

“ The first thing which strikes a person on viewing the carcass of a sheep which has died of rot, is its leanness. In conducting the examination, the fell appears of a bluish white, the muscles are pale and wasted, and fat hardly to be met with. Where it once existed, a tough yellow substance alone remains, which is so destitute of all pretentions to the name of suet, that it cannot, even when thrown upon a fire, be made to blaze. ”

“ We limit it to a paltry pasture-ground of roods and acres, but does it not show, by its determination to transgress our barriers, that such is not the treatment nature has designed for it? There is something more than wildness of character, and restless disposition, in the powerful attempts it continually makes to defy our artificial boundaries. There is in these efforts a longing for fresh fields and other herbage, an instinctive feeling that all is not as it ought to be ”

“ A rank succulent pasture taints the flesh, or renders it insipid and unpleasant, while a dry aromatic herbage communicates a delightful flavour, and enables people versed in the pleasures of the table easily to discriminate between turnip-fed and grass-fed mutton; and again, between the latter, and that which has spent its existence on the hills. In Touchwood's Syllabus of Culinary Lectures, appended to the Cook and Housewive's Manual, by Mistress Dods, we are briefly informed, that "the black-faced, or short-sheep, are best for the table, though more depends on the pasture than the breed." ”

“ The difference between a cleared and an uncleared country, in regard to wool, is well illustrated, by contrasting North America, its heavy woods and stagnant atmosphere, with the thinly timbered surface and constantly renovated air of New South Wales. It is only within the last few years that Canada has been enabled to compete with Britain in the article of wool, and that the sheep, which were of the coarsest kind, have been so improved as to do away with the prejudices against their mutton. ”

“ Australia, on the other hand, has, from its earliest colonization, figured as a sheep-rearing country of the first importance; and nothing has conduced so much to this as its freedom from closely planted trees, by the absence of which the settler is enabled at once to stock his farm with the best of sheep. Nature, in fact, could never have intended sheep to pasture in a wooded country, as is clearly evinced by their coat, to which every thing in the shape of bush or tree is in the highest degree inimical. ”

“ Not so, however, with the store-farmer. He cares not to inquire whether the sheep is naturally calculated to subsist on one kind of nutriment; and if so, whether they will, when left to the exercise of instinct, resort to turnips of their own accord; whether the sheep is usually restricted to confined localities similar to our fields, or is the unrestrained rover over an extensive pasture. Yet it is from investigations of this kind that we are to derive our mode of treating sheep, and are to form plans beneficial to ourselves, from their being, in a manner, improvements upon nature. ”

“ Wool-Bearing Animals.—In most dictionaries wool is defined as the fleece of sheep, as if, in fact they were the only animals which yield it, than which nothing can be more erroneous; since we are assured by the ablest naturalists, that almost every animal, from the butterfly up to man, possesses more or less of this covering, and that some indeed rival the sheep in the quantity they bear. ”

“ In choosing a breed, we should adopt that which affords the greatest quantity of market produce, in return for the food consumed; [16] and a particular breed ought always to be preferred to the sheep of a district. We must not imagine, that when, by dint of crossing, we have obtained the variety wanted, that it will remain in the condition to which we have brought it, without the slightest liability to alter. Many farmers believe they have done all that is required, if they subject their stock to three or four crossings with a breed of acknowledged excellence. ”

“ The final symptoms of rot may thus occur on any kind of pasture, and the scene of the catastrophe will incur a stigma which ought to be attached to herbage which the sheep have consumed at some distant place or date.
Bad food is justly regarded as one of the most common causes of rot, and ranks, in my estimation, next to cold and wet, in its power of producing it. I shall only remark, on this point, that of all the food on which sheep can possibly be kept, none is known to act so deleteriously as grass which has sprouted quickly. ”

“ The word "rot," when employed in speaking of man, implies what, in popular language, is called "consumption," and is applied to that disease only when it affects the lungs. Thus the fork-grinders of Sheffield, who, from the nature of their employment, are much exposed to the exciting causes of consumption, and who, at an early age, fall victims to it, are said, by the people of that town, to die of rot. ”

“ Or, in other words, when a race of animals is in circumstances favourable for its increase, Nature produces the greatest number of that sex which, in animals that do not pair, is most efficient for increasing the number of the race. But if they are in a bad climate, or on a stinted pasture, or if they have already given birth to a numerous offspring, then Nature, setting limits to the increase of the race, produces more males than females. ”

“ An atmosphere which holds suspended a large quantity of watery vapour, is always extremely chilling to an animal body. This is accounted for by the well-known fact, that a moist air, being a better conductor of caloric than a dry one, robs an animal more quickly of heat. Thus, in passing from the dry air of the hills into the vapour of the valleys in a winter morning, we feel as if the transition had been from a temperate to an icy region. Hence one of the reasons why sheep thrive best in a rather elevated situation. ”

“ Contagion, however, has nothing to do with the matter, the spread of the disease depending entirely on the state of the atmosphere and the nature of the locality. When dysentery occurs the weather is usually sultry, the ground upon which the flock has been going, foul, and the management of the sheep so improper, as to be sufficient of itself to produce the disease very generally. There is in fact only one proof of a disease being infectious, viz., its immediate occurrence on the introduction of an affected animal among such as are in good health, on sound food, and in easy circumstances. ”

“ If such then is the case with the young of an animal shielded from inclemency on every hand, how can we expect the progeny of a rather heavy variety of a defenceless creature like the sheep to thrive, in defiance of every thing ungenial, on a pasture which requires for its collection, in any quantity, a degree of experience and activity, the result of time and well-trained instinct. ”

“ Their bodies are light, their legs long, and their habits of that unquiet kind which renders them hostile to any thing like restraint. It is for these reasons, that when once a flock attaches itself to a range of hills, and becomes suited to the means of subsistence, it may preserve itself for ages apart from neighbouring varieties, and present, after a long series of years, those qualities in their native purity for which it was noted by the earliest observers. The sheep of a level country are distinguished, on the contrary, by heavy bodies, short legs, and easy tempers. ”

“ As the animal advances in life, the fibres become firmer, larger, and more approximated, the cellular tissue disappears to a great extent, the fat shifts from the outward to the inward parts, allowing the outline of the muscles to be distinctly seen, but giving at the same time to the figure that portly symptom of good keeping, so unpleasant to the eye when carried to the extent of Aldermanic dignity. ”

“ The backs of long-woolled sheep are, from their exposure, more liable to be selected by the flies, as a receptacle for their eggs, than the corresponding parts in such as are covered by a short thick fleece.
No sooner has the maggot begun its operations, than the sheep becomes uneasy and restless, rubbing itself on stones and trees, and endeavouring, by every means in its power to free itself from the annoyance. Teazed by the constant irritation, fever soon sets in, and, if the sheep be unrelieved by the shepherd's aid, death ensues in four-and-twenty hours. ”

“ Much of this is owing to careless management in the economy of the pastures, and to restricting them for great lengths of time to one kind of provender, a thing guarded against by all good breeders. Sudden transitions, however, from a poor to a nutritive pasture, and the reverse, are always bad, and therefore to be avoided; but change of feeding ground, with these restrictions, cannot be too much inculcated—it is, in fact, the soul of sheep husbandry. The bleakest portions of a farm should be pastured off in autumn, so as to reserve the sheltered spots for winter use. ”

“ Everything that has a tendency to weaken the animal, will be more or less liable to lead to rot. Exposure to cold and wet, mishaps at lambing time, food bad in quality or deficient in quantity, and over-driving, will all predispose the constitution to the deposition of tubercles. It is from the causes being in this way common to the whole flock, that contagious properties have been ascribed to rot, it having been observed, from the time of Virgil, to break out in many animals at once. ”

“ The composition of smearing stuffs is so very various, that it is quite beyond my power to give the reader even a list of the ordinary ingredients and their proportions; nor need I recommend any of them in particular to the attention of the shepherd, knowing, as I do, the bigoted opinions which are held upon the subject, and the aversion with which every one regards a mixture not of their own composing. I can only observe, that where tar is employed, it ought to be well diluted with grease, so as to enable two English quarts of it to be spread over six sheep. ”

“ For my part, I view it as a secretion, depending very much on good food and steadiness of temperature, and, therefore, indicative of a fine fleece only so far as the health of the animal is concerned. In the human being the state of the skin may often guide us, though blind-fold, to the quality of the hair, so that the latter may be pronounced either dry and coarse, or glossy, soft, and silky, as the skin may prove either harsh and ungrateful, or pleasant, and, if I may be allowed the expression, alkaline to the touch. ”

“ Geographical limits of the Sheep.—Every plant and animal has certain geographical limits, out of which it cannot exist. With the exception of man and the dog, no animal has a wider range than the sheep, extending as it does from Iceland almost to the equator, and from a few degrees south of that to the polar extremity of South America. But though existing under so great a variety of exposures, it must not be inferred that it can come to perfection in them all. ”

“ The early progress of the Wool Trade is veiled in much obscurity, and only to be discovered by seeking for it in a mass of fable, which in many instances enabled the old writers to string together the dry details of history, in a manner suited to the taste and habit of their time. ”

“ The reason why a race of animals occasionally thrives so well in a country to which it may be removed, appears to lie in its being suited, I may say, accidentally, by peculiar conformation, to the temperature to which it is transplanted. There are some happy climates where, introduce what animals you will, no matter how stunted they are, or how different the degree of warmth may be, their offspring will thrive, proving large and vigorous, and every way worthy of being placed at the head of its species. ”

“ In breeding and rearing rams, two divisions of these animals are recognised,—ram getters, and wedder getters,—the former, from their fineness, being kept for the procreation of animals like themselves, while the latter, from their coarseness, are set aside as fitted only for parent stock for grazier's sheep, the mere grazier liking a ram no worse for having a massy frame, and being less scrupulous about his form than the ram breeder, whose grand object is fineness, and who trusts to the ewes for giving the offspring size and substance. ”

“ Six or eight species of braxy are enumerated by shepherds, but as they all bear a striking resemblance one to another, in their origin and progress, it is preferable to treat of them as one disease. Indeed wire-drawn distinctions, though occasionally serviceable in cattle-medicine, ought in most instances to be avoided, as they are of but little avail, and in this disease straw-splitting can only serve to tantalize the farmer, by giving rise to ideas of finical modes of treatment, which before the Chapter ends are reduced to the simplest aids which medicine affords. ”

“ From the beginning of November till the middle of March, sickness commits its greatest ravages, especially among heath sheep, from their being more confined than others to dry binding provender. Frozen grass is also a common exciting cause, rapidly inducing inflammation by lowering the temperature of the stomachs so very much as to arrest digestion, and lead to its acting as an irritant. The succulent grass in the sheltered hollows of mountains is more liable to frost than a sapless herbage, and to it, owing to its moisture, the young sheep resort, devouring it eagerly to assuage their thirst. ”