Sheep, Swine, and Poultry: Embracing the History and Varieties of Each; The Best Modes of Breeding; Their Feeding and Management; Together with etc.Jennings, Robert
Science
Sheep, Swine, and Poultry: Embracing the History and Varieties of Each; The Best Modes of Breeding; Their Feeding and Management; Together with etc.
Jennings, Robert
Poultry; Sheep; Swine
They have white faces and legs, open countenances, lively eyes, and are
without horns; the ears are large, and somewhat singular, and there is
much space between the ears and eyes; the carcass is long; the back
straight; the shoulders rather light; the ribs circular; and the
quarters good. The legs are small in the bone, and covered with wool, as
well as the body, with the exception of the face. The wether is fit for
the butcher at three years old, and averages from twelve to eighteen
pounds a quarter; the mutton being of a good quality, though inferior to
the South-Down, and of less flavor than the black-faced. The Cheviot,
though a mountain breed, is quiet and docile, and easily managed.
The wool is about the quality of Leicester, coarse and long, suitable
only for the manufacture of low coatings and flushings. It closely
covers the body, assisting much in preserving it from the effects of wet
and cold. The fleece averages about three and a half pounds. Formerly,
the wool was extensively employed in making cloths; but having given
place to the finer Saxony wools, it has sunk in price, and been confined
to combing purposes. It has thus become altogether a secondary
consideration.
The Cheviots have become an American sheep by their repeated
importations into this country. The wool on several choice sheep,
imported by Mr. Carmichael, of New York, was from five to seven inches
long, coarse, but well suited to combing.
THE LINCOLN.
The old breed of Lincolnshire sheep was hornless, had white faces, and
long, thin, and weak carcasses; the ewes weighed from fourteen to twenty
pounds a quarter; the three-year old wethers from twenty to thirty
pounds; legs thick, rough and white; pelts thick; wool long--from ten to
eighteen inches--and covering a slow-feeding, coarse-grained carcass of
mutton.
A judicious system of breeding, which avoided Bakewell's errors, has
wrought a decided improvement in this breed. The improved Lincolns
possess a rather more desirable robustness, approaching, in some few
specimens, almost to coarseness, as compared with the finest Leicesters;
but they are more hardy, and less liable to disease. They attain as
large a size, and yield as great an amount of wool, of about the same
value. This breed, indeed, scarcely differs more from the Cotswold than
do flocks of a similar variety, which have been separately bred for
several generations, from each other. They are prolific, and when
well-fed, the ewes will frequently produce two lambs at a birth, for
which they provide liberally from their udders till the time for
weaning. The weight of the fleece varies from four to eight pounds per
head.
Having alluded to the principal points of interest connected with the
various breeds of sheep in the United States, our next business is with
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SHEEP.
[Illustration: SKELETON OF THE SHEEP AS COVERED BY THE MUSCLES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account