their ages. A plan of a sheep-house, combining also a lamb-house, is given by Kraft in his Rustic Designs. It is wholly built of unbarked spars, or young fir-trees. The plan (fig. 680.), contains four close apartments with doors for the lambs (a), and four others with racks for the sheep (b). The elevation (fig. 681.) shows a gallery (c), which sur rounds the building, and is used as a pas sage for viewing the sheep, handling them with the crook, and at night for the perambuations of a watch-dog. The roof being twenty feet from the floor, the interior is abundantly airy, which for sheep is an important object. Another design in the same work (fig. 682., is accompanied by an elegant Italian watchtower, with apartments therein for the shepherd. 6486. The economy of the suckling-house is as follows: The sheep which begin to lamb about Michaelmas are kept in the close during the day, and in the house during the night, until they have produced twenty or thirty lambs. These lambs are then put into a lamb-house, which is kept constantly well littered with clean wheat straw; and chalk, both in lump and in powder, is provided for them to lick, in order to prevent looseness, and thereby preserve the lambs in health. As a prevention against gnawing the boards, or eating each other's wool, a little wheat straw is placed, with the ears downwards, in a rack within their reach, with which they amuse themselves, and of which they eat a small quantity. In this house they are kept, with great care and attention, until fit for the butcher. 6487. The mothers of the lambs are turned, every night at eight o'clock, into the lamb-house to their offspring. At six o'clock in the morning, these mothers are separated from their lambs, and turned into the pastures; and at eight o'clock, such ewes as have lost their own lambs, and those ewes whose lambs are sold, are brought in and held by the head till the lambs, by turns, suck them clean: they are then turned into the pasture; and at twelve o'clock, the mothers of the lambs are driven from the pasture into the lamb-house for an hour, in the course of which time each lamb is suckled by its mother. At four o'clock, all the ewes that have not lambs of their own are again brought to the lamb-house, and held for the lambs to suck; and at eight, the mothers of the lambs are brought to them for the night. 6488. This method of suckling is continued all the year. The breeders select such of the lambs as become fat enough, and of proper age (about eight weeks old), for slaughter, and send them to markets during December, and three or four succeeding months, at prices which vary from one guinea to four, and the rest of the year at about two guineas each. This is severe work for the ewes, and some of them die under excess of exhaustion. However, care is taken that they have plenty of food; for when green food (viz. turnips, cole, rye, tares, clover, &c.) begins to fail, brewer's grains are given them in troughs, and second-crop hay in racks, as well to support the ewes, as to supply the lambs with plenty of milk; for, if that should not be abundant, the lambs would become stunted, in which case no food could fatten them. (Middlesex Report, p. $55.) SECT. VII. On the probable Improvement which may be derived from Crosses of the 6489. The Merino, or Spanish variety of the Ovis Aries, is supposed by Rozier and other French writers, to have been originally imported from Africa to Spain. It is, however, at least as probable, that they are indigenous to that country, or if originally imported, that they have become modified to what they are, by the soil and climate. Merinos first attracted attention in this country in 1764, in consequence of the reports of travellers, and a letter by Don John Bowley to Peter Collinson, published in the Gentleman's Magazine for that year. A few were imported in 1788, and more in 1791, and placed on the King's farm at Windsor, under the care of Sir Joseph Banks, who was then constituted His Majesty's shepherd. The first sale of stock was made in 1800; and from these, a flock imported from Spain in 1801, by Lord Somerville, and some other importations by different persons subsequently, have sprung all the Merinos and Merino rams in the empire. Since that period, a number of eminent breeders and scientific agriculturists have cultivated this breed both alone and by crossing, but espe cially Dr. Parry and Lord Somerville; and though the utility which its introduction may ultimately prove to the country can by no means be estimated at present, that it bas already done much good by directing the public attention to the subject, there can be no doubt; and many are of opinion, that by it the fleeces of our short-wooled sheep may be so improved as to render them fit substitutes for imported Spanish wool. 6490. Dr. Parry's experiments with the Merino breed were begun nearly at the same time with the King's. His farm was elevated, exposed, and unfit for any other purpose than breeding; and he fixed on the Ryeland breed, as one of the finest wooled varieties of British sheep, for crossing with Merino rams. His only object was the improvement of the fleece. of the 6491. The effect of the fourth cross of the Merino ram, according to the opinion of sheep cultivators on the continent, on any breed of ewes, however coarse and long in the fleece, will be to give progeny with short wool equal to the Spanish. Of the truth of this proposition, however, Dr. Parry justly expresses some doubts, derived from his own experience and that of others. But it is certain, he adds, that one cross more will, in most cases, effect the desired purpose. If we suppose, he says, the result of the admixture of the blood of the Merino ram to be always in an exact arithmetical proportion, and state the native blood in the ewe as 64; then the first cross would give Merino; the second; the third ; the fourth g; the fifth ; the sixth 63, and so on. In other words, the first cross would leave thirty-two parts in sixty-four, or half of the English quality; the second sixteen parts, or one-fourth; the third eight parts, or one-eighth; the fourth four parts, or one-sixteenth; the fifth two parts, or one-thirtysecond; the sixth one part, or one-sixty-fourth, and so on. Now, if the filaments of the Wiltshire, or any other coarse wool, be in diameter double that of the Ryeland, it is obvious, that, according to the above statement, it would require exactly one cross more to bring the hybrid wool of the former to the same fineness as that of the latter. This, he believes, very exactly corresponds with the fact. The difference between one-eighth and one-sixteenth is very considerable, and must certainly be easily perceived, both by a good miscroscope, and in the cloth which is manufactured from such wool. In the latter method, he adds, “it certainly has been perceived; but I have hitherto had no opportunity of trying the difference by the former. The fifth cross, as I have before observed, brings the Merino-Wilts wool to the same standard as the fourth of the Merino Ryeland." (Com. to the Board of Agr. vol. v. p. 438.) 6492. In the lambing season, the Ryeland breed are usually cotted, because the newborn lambs are very thinly covered with wool. As January was considered the best lambing season for the produce of the cross, Dr. Parry found cotting was doubly necessary. Every night the flock were well sheltered; and they were allowed, in addition to the pasture which they could pick up in the day-time, linseed jelly, ground oil cake, or grains, cabbages, rouen, winter and spring vetches, and tares. Salt, he says, I never gave to my flock but once, and that in the following way: A small field of lattermath, cut in September, had been so often wetted, that I despaired of its ever being eaten. While it was putting into the rick, I strewed some salt between the layers; the consequence was, that cows and sheep greedily devoured it, scarcely leaving a single blade. (Com. to the Board of Agr. vol. v. p. 505.) 6493. The shearing of the sheep was performed in the second week of June, and of the lambs at the end of July. The finer fleeced lambs need not be shorn till the second season. Washing previously to shearing Dr. Parry disapproves of; because the fleece is so thick, that when thoroughly soaked with water, it is very long in drying; and if the weather prove wet and cold, the sheep are evidently much incommoded; he, therefore, recommends cleansing the wool, after being shorn, as in Spain. 6494. The produce of wool, considered as the result of Dr. Parry's well conducted experiments, was found to be 14lb. 14oz. per acre, which at 3s. per lb. in the yolk throughout the fleece gives 21. 4s. 74d. per acre on land certainly not worth on an average 26 shillings. (See Comm. to the B. of Agriculture, vol. v.) 6495. Lord Somerville's experiments may be considered as of equal, if not more importance than these of Dr. Parry. His Lordship tried crosses with several short wooled breeds, but was most successful with the South Downs and Ryelands. Morris Birkbeck, a professional farmer of the first order, found that the fleeces of the first cross between Merinos and South Downs, washed, are to the parent South Downs as six to five in weight, and as three to two in value per pound, and believes that the improvement of the wool may go on, without detriment to the carcase, until we shall obtain a breed of sheep with Spanish fleeces, and English constitutions; but this must be the result of careful and judicious selection. 6496. Merino flocks are now established in most districts of the empire, and but few years can elapse before their value to the farmer and the country be practically ascertained and evinced. (See Sir J. Banks in Annals of Agriculture, Com. to B. of Agr. Bath Society's Papers, Dublin Society's Transactions, The Farmer's Magazine, Farmer' Journal. Lord Somerville's, and Dr. Parry's Tracts on Wool and Merinos, and various other works.) : SECT. VIII. Of the Anatomy and Physiology of Sheep. 6197. The general structure of the sheep resembles that of the ox very intimately. Sheep however, like the ox, experience considerable variations in size, form, and qualities; resulting from the physical and moral agencies which they become exposed to, under various climates and also, as whether fostered by cultivation, or left to the natural operations around them. These circumstances have operated on even the bony base of the machine, as we see in the formations of the three horned breed (Ovis polycerta, Lin.), natives of the north; in the spiral horned (0. strepsiceros, Lin.), which inhabit Wallachia; and the long horned (Capra ammon, Lin.), which are found in the countries bordering the Mediterranean: and which have been thought to be the parents of the present cultivated British sheep. Cultivation weakens the otherwise inherent aptitude to retain the original stamp of nature; and we find therefore, that by these means, the original form of the sheep has submitted to vast alterations. We see some of them wholly without horns; we also find that the bony structure is otherwise subjected to our command, by becoming much more slender, though more compact. Accidents are also laid hold on by man to produce particular forms: thus a breed has been cultivated in America, called the ancon or otter breed, remarkable for crooked and deformed legs; which, by continued breeding from specimens that presented this originally accidental deformity, is become now a fixed and permanent breed, valuable for their incapacity to wander or climb. (Dwight.) The dunky or wry-faced breed, is another instance of accidental deformity cultivated into a permanent variety: as the monstrous rump of the Tartarian sheep, and the over-grown tails of some breeds in Turkey, are similar instances in the softer parts of the body. 6498. The skeleton of the sheep presents an assemblage of bones, which bears a general resemblance to that of the ox in number and direction. Like him, the head naturally is surmounted by horns springing from the frontal bones. Like him, his frontal sinuses are large and open, and thus liable to the entrance of insects. The skull bones are wide and extended; his orbits are more lateral than central; and his facial angle is about 30 degrees. His vertebral column is the same as the ox, and his ribs also. The extre mities descend on the same construction, ending in a divided hoof. 6499. The visceral and soft parts are but little dissimilar likewise. His brain is as one two hundredth to the whole body; and his cerebellum to the brain generally, as 1 to 5. The pigment of the eye is of a pale yellowish green, varying occasionally to a blue. The viscera of the chest correspond with the ox; and those of the belly also, the stomachs being the same, and the economy of rumination not differing. The liver, pancreas, and spleen are similar. The penis is taper, vesiculæ seminales wanting, and prostates two. 6500. The wool of the sheep is but a crisped hair; and indeed in some foreign varieties, the outer covering is of long hair like that of oxen; while in others the hair and wool are mixed. SECT. IX. The Diseases of Sheep. 6501. The diseases of sheep are numerous; for these animals are now so highly cultivated that they may be regarded in some respects as artificial machines: and thus, as a natural consequence, they are subjected to a variety of artificial defects or maladies. 6502. The rot is a popular term among shepherds, and includes within its range diseases widely different. We shall not therefore follow the custom of treating the different rots of sheep together; but we shall allow them to fall in their natural order, according to the plan pursued with the diseases of oxen.. 6503. The inflammatory and putrid fever, popularly known by the names higham striking, or blood striking, does not differ materially from the same disease in oxen and cows; and is in sheep also sometimes epidemic; appearing by panting, dulness, watery mucus from the nose and eyes; and great redness of all such parts as are usually white. 6504. The red water. The inflammatory fever sometimes resolves itself into an universal secretion of serum throughout all the cavities; in which case after a few days, the lymph tinged with blood will come away from the nose and mouth in large quantities. Sometimes after death the bloody serum is found suffused throughout the skin as in the blood striking of skins. 6505. The claveau or sheep por is also another variety of this disease, in which it takes on a pustular form. About the third day small variolæ appear: sometimes they are rather blotches than pustules. The weakness is usually extreme, and the putridity great. This form of the disease is seldom seen with us; but is still known on the continent, where the pastures are very poor and low, and the general keep meagre. 6506. The treatment of all these in no wise differs from that directed under the inflammatory putnd fever of the ox. The doses of medicines being about a third of what is directed for them. 6507. Malignant epidemic or murrain. Sometimes an epidemic prevails, which greatly resembles the murrain of oxen: ín appearances termination and treatment it resembles malignant epidemic of oxen. (6249.) 6508. Peripneumonia or inflamed lungs, rising of the lights, glanderous rot, hose, &c. These terms are all modifications of an inflamed state of the viscera of the chest, caught by undue exposure, bad pas turage, and often from over-driving. The cough, the tremblings, the redness of the eyes and nostris, and the distillation of a fluid from them, with the heavings and hot breath, are all similar to those which characterise the pneumonia or rising of the lights in oxen. We remember to have seen the disease strongly marked in the February of 1808, on a farm in the neighborhood of Streatham; where eleven sheep were attacked almost together, after a very stormy night. They were first affected with a loss of appetite; next with a fixed stedfast look, which was common to every one. After this, they reeled about, fell backwards, and became convulsed. When seen, five were already dead, whose internal appearances fully confirmed the nature of the disease. The rest recovered by bleeding and drenching, with drenches composed of nitre and tartar emetic. Sometimes, the symptoms of pneumonia do not kill immediately, but degenerate into an ulceration of the lungs; which is then called the glanderous rot. This stage is always fatal: the others may, by early attention, be combated by judicious treatment, as detailed under the same disease in oxen. 6509. A chronic cough in sheep, when not symptomatic of rot, is always cured by a change of pasturage, particularly into a salt marsh. 6510. Inflammation of the stomach occurs from various causes. A common one arises from eating noxious vegetables; and produces the affections termed tremblings. It also produces the grass ill in lambs; which latter is always accompanied with black, fœtid fæces, and is readily removed by an ounce of castor oil; while the former usually yields to half an ounce of oil of turpentine, beaten up with the yolk of an egg. Some herbs (as Atropa belladonna,) when eaten produce spasmodic affections, which are called by shepherds the leaping ill in such cases the watery solution of aloes (Vet. Pharm. 5916.) in doses of two or three ounces is useful. Daffy's elixir we have also known to be given with good effect. 6511. The hove, blast, or wind colic. Sheep are as liable to be distended with an enormous collection within the maw as oxen. An instrument, similar to that invented by Dr. Monro, is also made for them; and when not relieved by these means, the same remedies are applicable, as are directed for oxen. (6259.) 6512. A wind colic will also sometimes affect sheep more from the quality than the quantity of what they eat it is best relieved by an ounce of castor or salad oil with an ounce of gin. 6513. Inflamed liver, blood rot, or hot yellows, are liver affections, arising from fever settling in that organ; or from obstructed bile irritating it. Sometimes there are great marks of fever; and at others more of putridity; according to which, treat as may be gathered from ox pathology. 6514. Jaundice also now and then occurs, when refer to that disease in oxen. (6268) 6515. Dysentery, gall scour, brary, are all affections brought on by sudden changes of temperature, or of undue moisture acting with cold pasturage. It is often seen in sultry autumns: - treat as under ox braxy. (6267.) 6516. Scouring is the diarrhoea of sheep, and in very hot weather soon carries them off. It should be early attended to, by abstracting the affected, and housing them. The treatment is seen under diarrhoea of oxen (6266.), which it closely resembles. 6517. Pinning, tag-belt, break-share. The two former are only the adhesion of the tail to the wool, and the excoriation brought on by diarrhoea; the latter is the diarrhoea itself, known to some by this term. : 6518. The rot in sheep is also called great rot, and hydropic rot, &c.; but it is more popularly known by the single term of rot. Many causes have been assigned for it, as the fasciola hepatica, or fluke worm; some particular plants eaten as food; ground eating; snails, and other ingesta: but, as most of the supposed deleterious herbs have been tried by way of experiment, and have failed to produce the disease, so it is attributable to some other cause. Neither is there reason to suppose that the fluke worm occasions it, since we know that the biliary vessels of other animals, as horses, asses, rats, &c., often have them and above all, because that they are not always present in the rotted subject. From long experience, and the almost invariable effect produced by a humid state of atmosphere, soil, and product; we are warranted in concluding these are the actual and immediate agents: perhaps the saturated food itself is sufficient to do it. The morning dew has been supposed equal to it. Bakewell, when his sheep were past service, used to rot them purposely, that they might not pass into other hands. This he always readily did by overflowing his pastures. But great differences of opinion exist as to the quantity, form, and varieties of moisture, productive of this fatal disease. It is said that land on which water flows, but does not stagnate, will not rot, however moist: but this is contradicted by the experience of Bakewell, who used merely to flood his lands a few times only to rot his sheep. It is also said that they are safe from rot on Irish bogs, salt marshes, and spring flooded meadows, which experience seems to verify. It is also said, that the very hay made from unsound land will rot; but this wants confirmation. When salt marshes are found injurious it is only in such years when the rain has saturated, or rather super-saturated such marshes. That putrid exhalations unaccompanied with moisture can occasion rot wants confirmation also: for these commonly go together, and it is difficult to separate their effects. It is not, perhaps, the actual quantity of water immediately received by land, but the capacity of that land to retain the moisture, which makes it particularly of a rotting quality. 6519. The signs of rottenness are sufficiently familiar to persons about sheep. They first lose flesh, and what remains is flabby and pale; they lose also their vivacity. The naked parts, as the lips, tongue, &c., look livid, and are alternately hot and cold in the advanced stages. The eyes look sad and glassy, the breath is fœtid, the urine small in quantity and high-colored; and the bowels are at one time costive, and at another affected with a black purging. The pelt will come off on the slightest pull in almost all cases. The disease has different degrees of rapidity, but is always fatal at last. This difference in degree occasions some rotted sheep to thrive well under its progress to a certain stage, when they suddenly fall off, and the disease pursues the same course with the rest. Some graziers know this crisis of declension, as it has been called, and kill their sheep for market at the immediate nick of time with no loss. In these cases, no signs of the disease are to be traced by ordinary inspectors, but the existence of the flukes, and still more, a certain state of liver and of its secretions, are characteristic marks to the wary and experienced. 6520. The treatment of rot is seldom successful unless when it is early commenced, or when of a mild nature; a total change of food is the first indication, and of that to a dry wholesome kind: all the farina are good, as the meals of wheat, barley, oats, pease, beans, &c. Carrots have done good mixed with these: broom, burnet, elder, and mellilot, as diuretics, have also been recommended; but it is necessary to observe, that there is seldom any ventral effusion but in the latter stages of the complaint. As long as the liver is not wholly disorganized, the cure may be hoped by a simple removal of the cause, which has been shown to be a variable temperature, with excessive moisture of pasturage, which may also be aided by such remedies as assist the action of the biliary system; salt acts in this way, and thus salt mashes are good; salt may also be given in the water. Salt appears the principal ingredient in Flesh's patent restorative for sheep, for it states it to be composed of turpentine, sal ammoniac, turmeric, quicksilver, brimstone, salt, opium, alkanet root, bark, antimony, camphor, and distilled water; but of this medley, none of the articles can be in sufficient quantity to prove useful, but the salt. In the more advanced stages of the disease, when the liver has become materially affected, it is prudent to rub the bellies of each sheep with half a drachm of mercurial ointment every other day for a week: give also the following, every morning: watery tincture of aloes, balf an ounce, decoction of willow bark, four ounces, nitric acid, twentyfive drops. 6521. The pelt rot, hunger rot, or naked disease, is a variety of the former, but with this difference, that whereas the liver in the hydropic rot is principally affected; in this the whole of the chylopoietic viscera are injured; the mesenteric glands are always swollen and obstructed, and from thence arises the emaciation and unhealthy state of all the secretions, by which the rot becomes incapable of receiving nutriment, and falls off, leaving the body bare, and in the last stages the teeth and horns also loosen. Indiffer. ent, unhealthy keep, is a very common cause of this malady, and a contrary course of feeding is the best remedy when the disease has not gone on too long. 6522. The scab, shab, ray, or rubbers, are sometimes erysipelatous eruptions, and sometimes they are psoric or mangy ones. In the former instance they are universal and very red, occasioning a great heat and itching, and are thence called the rubbers: in such cases, nitre administered quickly relieves, with change of food. The eruptive scab is seldom cured without an external application; either of those directed for mange, lowered to half the strength, will relieve it at once. (See Vet. Pharm.) 6523. Foot rot sheep have a secretory outlet between the claws peculiar to them, which is liable to become obstructed; their feet are also liable to become injured, and then diseased, from travelling or continued standing on wet soils: but the real foot rot is an endemial affection which sometimes attacks half of the flock. It must be attended to by removing all diseased portions, and then dressing with the thrush paste, or foot rot application, (Vet. Pharm. 5885.), and afterwards wrapping up from external exposure. 6524. Staggers, gid, turnsick, goggles, worm under the horn, sturdy, watery head, and pendro, are all popular terms for hydatids, or an animal now known as the tænias globulus, which, by some unaccount. able means, finds its way to the brain, and settles itself there either in some of its ventricles, or more frequently on its substance. Their size varies from the smallest speck to that of a pigeon egg, and the sheep it attacks are usually under two years old, These animals are likewise occasionally found in all the natural cavities of the body. 6525. The appearances of cerebral hydatids are, stupidity, a disposition to sit on the rump, to turn to one side, and to incline the head to the same while at rest. The eyes glare, and from oval, the pupils become round. An accurate examination will now usually discover some softness at a particular part of the skull, generally on the contrary side to that on which the animal hangs the head: when no softness of the skull is discernible, the hydatid usually exists in some of the ventricles, and the destruction of the sheep is certain and quick, from the greater disturbance to the functions of the brain; but when it is situated on the surface, it sometimes requires many months to destroy; an absorption of the bone taking place as the hydatid increases, which produces the thinness in the skull opposite to the affected part. 6526. This disease is not incurable, as has been supposed, but it is only relieved by a manual operation. In France it has been successfully treated by the application of the actual cautery: a pointed iron, heated red hot, is forced through the skin and skull, to the surface of the brain; the principal nicety of which, is in penetrating the hydatid with the hot iron without wounding the brain itself. In England, some shep herds are very dexterous in wiring, which they do by thrusting a wire up the nostrils till it rests against the skull, In the passage of the wire, the hydatid is usually ruptured; others elevate the skull by means of a trephine, or even a knife) opposite to the softened portion, and extract the hydatid, if possible, whole, which a little care will effect, by drawing it away with a blunt pincer, gently moving it from side to side. Tapping is merely letting out the fluid contents of the hydatid by an awl, which is practised by some shepherds with success; and if the instrument be not thrust too far, the animal is never injured; to avoid which, it is passed obliquely. A well hardened gimlet is a very proper instrument, with which the skul is easily penetrated, and an opening by the twisting of the instrument is made, sufficiently large in the hydatid itself, to discharge its contents, which is all that is sufficient to ensure its destruction, and which, if no others exist, is followed by immediate recovery. 6527. Frontal worms. Sheep are observed to gather together, with their noses thrust inwards to avoid the attack of the estrus ovis, or fly, that lays its eggs on the inner margin of the nose, which, having become hatched, the larva creep up into the frontal and maxillary sinuses, to the torment of the sheep. The continental shepherds trepan an opening into these cavities, and effect their removal; but our shepherds have not succeeded in the operation. 6528. Fluke worms are a parasitic animal, found in the biliary sinuses, not only of the sheep, but of the horse, ass, goat, deer, &c., and whose existence is rather a consequence than a cause of morbidity. 6529. The diseases of lambs are confined to indigestion, and eruption of secretive matter: the former shews itself in colic, which is relieved as in sheep, and also by diarrhoea, to be likewise cured by the means detailed for them; the latter is more obstinate, and begins on the rump, gradually extending along the chine, and when it becomes more universal, it usually destroys. The cure consists in giving daily drinks of half a drachm of cream of tartar, and one drachm of sulphur, in four ounces of chamomile decoction. Anoint also with mild mercurial ointment and Turner's cerate in equal quantities. The Swine. CHAP. VII. Sus Scrofa, L.; Cochon, Fr.; Schwein, Ger.; Puerco, Span. and 6530. Of swine there are several species, but none in general domestication, or much used as food when taken wild, excepting the common sort, which includes the wild hog or wild boar, the original stock of our domestic breed, the European hog, and the Chinese hog. The common hog is found either in a wild or domestic state, in almost |