CHAP. I. Of the general Properties and Uses of Horned Cattle.

THE Ox is the most valuable of horned cattle. He costs but little to keep, and yields a con­siderable profit: is very good for draught, and for the plough; subject to few diseases, and those easily cured. He lives to a good age, and requires but a trisle to harness him, though no creature turns up the earth so well; and when he is worn out with service, he is fattened, and becomes ex­cellent food; or, if he breaks a limb he is killed, and his flesh is eaten. His skin and his suet sell for a good price. Even his horns and his gall fetch somewhat, and his dung is a good manure. In short, he may justly be styled, by way of excellence, the animal; for, besides the great services which he renders to man, he returns to the earth full as much as he takes from it; even meliorates the soil on which he lives, and fattens his pastures; where­as the horse, and most other animals, exhaust the richest meadows in a few years. Without the ox, both rich and poor would find it difficult to subsist: the earth would lie uncultivated; our fields, and even our gardens would be dry and barren. He is a principal instrument in all works of husbandry, the most useful servant in a farm, and the support of rural oeconomics; for on him depends the most laborious part of agriculture.

[Page 16]Formerly the wealth of man consisted chiefly in his herds of black cattle, and they still continue to be the basis of national opulence; for it is only by the cultivation of lands, and the abundance of cat­tle, that a state can be maintained in a flourishing condition. These are, alone, real goods: all others, gold and silver not excepted, are only arbi­trary; money and credit having no other value than what they derive from the products of the earth.

That the ox is not so proper for carrying burdens as the horse, the ass, the mule, the camel, and some other beasts, is evident, from the form of his back and reins: but his thick neck and broad shoulders declare him to be perfectly fit for draught; and accordingly it is with them that he draws to the greatest advantage, though such is the absurdity of some men, and such their blind attachment even to the most ridiculous customs, that he still is, in many parts, and particularly in several of the pro­vinces of France, made to draw by his horns, on the shallow pretence of his being then most easily guided: a custom almost as preposterous as was that of the Irish, who, till lately, used to make their horses draw the plough by their tails. It may in­deed be true, that the strength of the ox's head is sufficient to enable him to bear tolerably well this method of labouring: but certainly he performs his work much less easily, and less well, than when he draws by the shoulders, which nature seems to have formed purposely for the plough. The un­wieldy magnitude of his body, the slowness of his paces, the shortness of his legs, every thing, even his quietness and patience in toil, evidently concur to fit him for tillage, and enable him, beyond any other animal, to surmount the constant resistance of the earth against his efforts. The horse, though perhaps equally strong, is less proper for this use; [Page 17] his legs are too long, his paces too quick and im­petuous, and he soon frets and tires. Besides, by putting him to the plough, we deprive him of all the agility and suppleness of his motions; of all the beauty of his attitude and carriage: for this heavy work requires rather perseverance than hard la­bour; rather strength than swiftness, and weight rather than elasticity: and accordingly, wherever the comparison had been made with any degree of accuracy between horses and oxen for the labours of the field, and especially for ploughing, the dif­ference has been found to be considerably in favour of the latter, in every respect but that of speed; and even in this article their inferiority amounts to nothing more than being two hours in a day longer at work than horses: for they perform the same quantity of work every day, and that too in a bet­ter manner. It is universally allowed that they are cheaper in every sense; for they cost less when bought, are less expensive in their food, their har­ness, and their shoeing; are subject to much fewer disorders, require far less attendance, and at last remain fit for fatting when their labours are over, as was before observed. Yet, strange fatuity! not­withstanding all these advantages, they are so little used at present for the works of husbandry in this kingdom, that, if we may trust to the report of the author of the Six Months Tour through the North of England ^(a), and surely we may confide in what that gentleman says from his own personal in­quiries and observations on the spot, whole counties in England, which, not many years ago, scarcely possessed a plough-horse, now have not a single ploughing ox.

To account for this very extraordinary and every way highly detrimental change, and at the same [Page 18] time to refute the groundless opinion of those who look upon it as a kind of proof that horses are really preferable, the author here referred to, Arth. Young, Esq. F. R. S. very judiciously at­tributes it to the great price which live cattle have yielded of late years. ‘It is well known, says he, that the regular course of business in the ox counties, used to be, to keep three sets of beasts; one of young cattle that were coming into work; the teams; and fattening cattle, that had been worked three years. But when cattle came to be so very dear, as to cost when lean near as much as they sold for when fat, the ox-farmers were tempted to sell their young stock before they ploughed them; or at least to throw them directly to fattening, that their high value might come in the sooner. And as horses, once bought, required no annual addition, they by degrees increased with all poor farmers, to enable them to sell their oxen at high prices. The great decrease of the use of oxen during the pe­riod of live cattle selling so very high, gives some reason to suppose this the cause of it. I need not, surely, add, that this, or any other reason that can be offered, is, and must be, false and incomplete; and that the use of them in tillage is much superior to that of horses. The avarice of the farmers has alone driven them out of use, not for the sake of profit, but for raising money at a future expence. The great farmers in Nor­thumberland, who, we are certain, are not poor, still continue to make much use of oxen, viz. half and half.’

If the above arguments are not sufficient, the following indisputable fact, attested by the same observant writer, who relates what he him­self saw, must surely silence for ever the [Page 19] most prejudiced advocates for ploughing with horses. ^(b)

Wenman Cooke, Esq. of Longford, in Derby­shire, executes all his ploughing and home-carting, which are very considerable, with oxen harnessed nearly in the same manner as is practised for horses, excepting that the collars open to be buckled on, and are worn with the narrow end, which is the part that opens, downward. The chains are fas­tened to them in the same direction as in a horse harness, but much above the chest, and in a line almost even with their backs. The beasts of course draw thus much higher than horses. He likewise finds that they draw with much greater power in this manner than in yokes, that they move much faster, are more handy and convenient, and that they perform their work at much less expence than could be done by horses, as well as even more ex­peditiously, as appears from Mr. Cooke's plough­ing as much land in a day with three oxen, as the farmers do with four or five horses. A disproportion so amazingly great, that, as Mr. Young very pro­perly remarks, it decides at once, and in the clear­est manner, the long contested point, whether horses or oxen are the fittest for the plough. Mr. Cooke feeds them in the summer on grass alone, and in the winter on straw; on which last indeed, he works them only moderately; but if hard, they then have hay, or some turneps. Mr. Young de­clares that he saw a team of oxen, thus harnessed, drawing a heavy load of bricks, and observed that not one horse-team in ten could have out walked them. The drivers assured him, that they worked much better thus than when yoked, that they were able to draw a greater weight, and were far more easily managed. When oxen are yoaked, they [Page 20] move awkwardly, and often with such inequality between the couples, that, as is well known to all ox-drivers, it is common for one beast to make its companion bear the whole stress of the draught. This inconvenience, as well as the objection that oxen trample the land too much when they are yoaked together in ploughing, is totally removed in Mr. Cooke's method, which seems in fact to be an im­provement of M. de Chateauvieux's, mentioned in the second volume of my system of husbandry ^(c). The making of the oxen go in a single line instead of a double one, is also extremely useful in some sorts of ploughing; and it has been proved by re­peated experience, that they may easily be rendered so tractable as to be guided by a line like horses.

The cow may also be rendered fit for the labours of the field, and, though not so strong as the ox, be made to supply his place: but when she is em­ployed in this service, care should be taken to match her as nearly as possible with an ox of equal strength and size, in order to preserve an equality of draught between them; for the less unequal they are, the more easily and readily the tillage is per­formed. Stiff lands, especially such as turn up in large long clods, often require six or eight oxen to plough them; whereas a sandy and loose soil may be tilled with only two cows: and besides, in this last, the furrows may be continued to a greater length than in the former. Among the antient [...], an hundred and twenty paces was the greatest length of a furrow which the ox was to make by one continued effort, after which, say they, he is not to be goaded farther, but allowed to breathe a while, before the same furrow is continued, or another begun. But, among the antients, agri­culture was a favourite study: they did not dis­dain [Page 21] to put their own hands to the plough; at least, they countenanced the husbandman, and consulted both his ease and that of the ox: whereas amongst us, they who enjoy the most of the products of the earth are, in general, the last to esteem, encourage and support the art of cultivation. There are few STUART MACKENZIES, sensible, like the immor­tal SULLY, that tillage and pastures are the only real foundation of the lasting prosperity of states.

The barren cow, which the country people call a free martin, has almost as much strength, and is nearly as fit for the works of husbandry as the ox. Its flesh too is said to be very nearly as good to eat ^*.

The principal use of the bull is to propagate the species; and though he also may be subjected to the yoke, yet one cannot be sure that he will work quietly, and the use which he may make of his prodigious strength is constantly to be guarded against. He is naturally untractable, stubborn and fierce, and, in the bulling season, absolutely uncon­troulable, and often furious: but castration des­troys the source of these violent impulses, without diminishing his strength. He also grows larger, heavier, and more unwieldy when castrated, and thereby becomes the better adapted to the labour for which he is intended. This operation likewise renders him more tractable, patient, docile, and less troublesome to others. A herd of bulls could not be either teamed or managed by all the skill and power of man.

[Page 22]Most country people know how to perform this operation: but the different effects which will re­sult from the various times of performing it have not perhaps yet been sufficiently attended to. In general, the most proper age for castration is that immediately preceding puberty, which, in horned cattle, is eighteen months or two years; few of those that undergo the operation sooner, long sur­viving it. It is true, indeed, that calves, whose testicles have been taken out soon after their birth, become, if they survive the operation, which is very dangerous at that early age, larger, fleshier, and fatter, than those which are not castrated till their second, third, or fourth year: but in return, these last seem to retain more spirit and activity; and those which are not castrated till their sixth, seventh, or eighth year, lose little or nothing of their other masculine qualities, being more impe­tuous and difficult to manage than other oxen; nay, in their bulling season, they endeavour to get at the cows, which must be carefully guarded against, because the copulation, or even the bare touch of such an ox, produces in the vulva of the cow a kind of carnosities or warts, which nothing but the actual cautery can destroy.

The horned cattle, of which we now speak, af­ford a proof that the heaviest and most sluggish animals are not always those which sleep the longest, nor the most soundly; for the sleep of these is short, and so unsound, that the least noise awakes them. They usually lie on the left side, and the kidney on that side is always larger, and has more fat about it than that on the right side.

CHAP. II. Of the Choice of Cattle, and of fitting them for Tillage.

OXEN, like other domestic animals, are of va­rious colours. The dun is the most com­mon, and the redder it is, the more the creature is esteemed: the black are also valued; and bay oxen are said to be vigorous and long-lived; where­as the brown soon decay. The grey, the pied, and the white, are commonly deemed fit only for slaughter; it being the general opinion, which by the bye I doubt, that no pains can render them fit for labour. However, be that as it may, whatever is the colour of an ox's coat, it should be glossy, thick, and smooth to the touch; for if it be harsh, rough, or thin, there is room to suspect that the animal is out of order, or at least not of a strong constitution.

The age of the ox is known by his teeth and horns. The first fore-teeth, which he sheds at the end of ten months, are replaced by others, larger, but not so white: at six months after this, the teeth next to those in the middle, fall out, and are also replaced by others: and in three years all the incisory teeth are renewed. They are then even, long, and pretty white; but as the creature advances in years they wear, and become unequal and black. It is the same with the bull and the cow; so that, consequently, the growth and shed­ding of teeth are not affected by castration, nor by the difference of sexes. Neither is the shedding of their horns affected by either; for the ox, the bull, and the cow, lose them alike at the end of three years, and they are alike replaced by other horns, which, like the second teeth, remain; only [Page 24] the horns of the ox and cow are thicker and longer than those of the bull. The manner in which these second horns grow is not uniform, nor is their shooting equal. In the first year of their appear­ance, which is the fourth of the ox's age, two small pointed horns bud forth, neatly formed, smooth, and terminated by a kind of button to­wards the head of the animal. The next year this button moves from the head, being impelled by a corneus cylinder, which, also lengthening, is ter­minated by another button, and so on; for the horns continue to grow as long as the creature lives. These buttons become [...]ings, or annular joints, which are easily distinguished in the horn, and by which the age of the animal may at once be known; reckoning three years for the point of the horn down to the first joint, and one year for each of the other intervals.

A good ox for the plough must be neither too fat nor too lean; his head should be short and thick; his ears large and shaggy; his horns strong, glossy, and of a middling size; his forehead broad; his eyes full and black; his muzzle thick, short and flat; his nostrils wide and open; his teeth white and even; his lips black; his neck fleshy; his shoulders large and heavy; his breast broad; his dew-lap hanging down to his knees; his reins very broad; his ribs broad, and not close; his belly spacious and sloping downwards; his flanks firm; his haunches large; his rump thick and very round; his thighs and legs large, fleshy and nervous; his back strait and full; his tail reaching to the ground, and well covered with thick and fine hair; his feet firm; his hide thick and pliable; his muscles raised; and his hoof short and broad. He must also answer to the goad; be obedient to the voice of his driver, and easy to govern: but it is only gradually, and [Page 25] by beginning early, that he is brought willing to bear the yoke, and be easily managed.

At the age of two years and a half, or at farthest three, it is time to begin to tame him, and bring him under subjection; for if this is delayed longer, he becomes headstrong, and often ungovernable. The only method of succeeding herein is, by pa­tience, mildness, and even caresses; for violence and rough usage will only disgust him beyond the power of recovery. Stroaking him gently along the back, clapping him with the hand, giving him occasionally boiled barley, ground beans, and such other aliments as please him most, all of them mixed with salt, of which he is very fond, will prove of the greatest use. At the same time a rope should be frequently tied about his horns, and some time af­ter the yoke should be put about his neck, and fas­tened, first to a pair of wheels only, and then to a plough, with another ox of the same size ready trained: after this they should be tied together at the same manger, and be led together to pasture, that they may become acquainted, and accustomed to step alike. The goad should never be made use of at first, because it then would only render him more untractable. He must also be indulged, and labour only at short intervals; for till he has been thoroughly trained, he tires himself very much; for which reason also he should then be fed more plentifully than at other times. Also, when he is to work, especially if it be in stiff or stony ground, and likewise when he is to go upon the road, he should be shod, or, as the country people and far­riers term it, cued. He should draw the plough only from his third to his tenth year; for after this it will be advisable to fatten and sell him, his flesh being then better than if he was kept longer.

It is said that oxen which feed slowly bear labour better than those which eat faster; that such as [Page 26] have been bred in dry and high countries, are handsomer, more vigorous, and more sprightly, than those of low and moist countries; that dry hay strengthens them more than soft grass; that they cannot bear a change of climate so well as horses; and that, for this reason, oxen for labour should always be purchased in the neighbourhood of the place where they are to work.

In general, countries somewhat colder than our own seem to agree better with black cattle than those which are hotter; and they are larger and more fleshy, in proportion as the climate is moister, and abounds in pasture.

The largest black cattle that we know of are those of Denmark, Podolia, the Ukraine, and Calmuck Tartary. The English, Irish, Dutch, and Hungarian cattle are also larger than those of Persia, Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, and Spain; and the smallest we know of are those of Barbary, and our own islands of Alderney and Man. The Dutch import yearly from Denmark numbers of large lean cows, which, when improved by living in the rich pastures of Holland, yield a great deal more milk and butter than our common breed of cows. Their calves are also much larger and stronger; and, except four or five days before their calving, they may be milked during the whole year. These cows, commonly called Flanders cows, require excellent pastures, though they eat little more than the common sort; but as they are always lean, the superabundance of their food turns wholly to milk; whereas our common cows, after living sometime in luxuriant pastures, become fat, and yield little or no milk. From a bull of this kind and a common cow, is produced another breed, called bastard, which is both more prolific, and abounds more in milk than the common breed. These bastard cows often bring two calves at once, and also yield milk all the year round. They con­stitute [Page 27] a large part of the wealth of Holland, which exports every year butter and cheese to a very consi­derable amount. These cows give much more milk than our common ones, as was before said, twice as much as those of France, and six times as much as those of Barbary.

The best English oxen and cows, for largeness and neatness of shape, are bred in the counties of York, Derby, Lancaster, Stafford, Lincoln, Glou­cester, and Somerset. Those bred in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Staffordshire, are ge­nerally black, with large well-spread horns. Those of Lincolnshire are, for the most part, pied, very tall and large, and fittest for labour. Those bred in Somersetshire and Gloucestershire are generally red, and for shape much like those of Lincolnshire. Wiltshire breeds large cattle, but with ill-shaped heads and horns. Surry is famed for a breed of white cows, which are said to yield an uncommonly rich milk; and it is added, that their flesh takes salt more readily than that of any other breed. The black sort is commonly the smallest, but at the same time very strong, and consequently fit for labour. The cows of this colour seldom yield more than a gallon of milk at a meal, as it is called; but continue to bear being milked till within a very few days of calving. The white and red sorts give, in general, near three times as much milk as the black, but grow dry much sooner; especially the white. The red kind is generally the largest of any sort we have in England, and is commonly thought to give more and richer milk than those of other colours. Some likewise say that they bring better calves, and therefore advise keeping this breed free from mixture with any other. It may certainly be looked upon as a general rule, that the cow which gives milk longest is best both for the dairy and for breeding; and that the younger the cow is, the [Page 28] better will be the breed, provided she be past her second year.

A gentleman will choose the cow that gives the best milk, in preference to one which yields a larger quantity of less good; whereas the latter will an­swer best to the farmer, for fattening calves, lambs, and his whole breed of swine. The bullock of a moderate size will also be preferred by the gentle­man, for beef for his table, because its flesh is better relished, and finer grained; and the larger size may be more prized by the farmer, because they fetch more money at market, their flesh being most esteemed for salting, especially for naval use; for it is found to shrink less, and to be less preyed on by the salt, than the beef of smaller cattle.

CHAP. III. Of Feeding, Fattening, and Tending of Cattle.

THE ox eats fast, and takes in a short time all the nourishment he wants, after which he ceases to eat, and lies down to chew the cud; whereas the horse feeds both day and night, slowly, but almost incessantly. This difference in their manner of feeding proceeds from the different make of their stomachs: for the ox, whose two first stomachs form but one very capacious bag, can easily swallow so large a quantity of herbage as soon to fill his maw, and that done, he chews the cud afterwards, and digests it at leisure; whilst the horse, having but a small stomach, can put into it only a small quantity of grass, and continue to replenish it as the food sinks and passes into the [Page 29] intestines, where the decomposition of the aliments is chiefly performed: and accordingly, upon in­spection of these parts both in the ox and the horse, and the successive effect of digestion, particularly the decomposition of hay, M. de Buffon saw ^(a), that, in the ox, on its leaving that part of the maw which forms the second stomach, it is reduced to a kind of green paste, like spinage minced and boiled; that it retains this appearance in the folds of the third stomach; that the decomposition is completed in the fourth stomach; and that what passes into the intestines is only the husks and re­crements: whereas in the horse, he observed, that this decomposition is hardly visible, either in the stomach or first intestines, where it becomes only more supple and flexible, having been macerated and penetrated by the active liquor with which it is surrounded; and that it reaches the coecum and colon without any great alteration; that it is in these two intestines, whose enormous capacity an­swers to the maw in ruminating animals, that the decomposition of a horse's aliment is chiefly per­formed; and that this decomposition is never so perfect as that in the fourth stomach of the ox.

From these observations, and the bare inspection of the parts, it is easy to conceive how rumination is performed, and why the horse neither ruminates nor vomits; whereas the ox, and all the horned cattle, with other animals which have several sto­machs, seem to digest the grass only by rumination, which is nothing more than vomitting without ef­fort, occasioned by the re-action of the first sto­mach on the aliments it contains. The ox fills his two first stomachs (the second being only a part of the first), and the membrane thus extended re-acts on the grass within it, which has been but very [Page 30] little chewed, and its bulk increased by fermenta­tion. Were the aliment liquid, this contracted force would make it pass into the third stomach, which communicates with the other only by a nar­row duct, the orifice of which is situated at the upper part of the first, and but little below the aesophagus; so that no dry aliment can pass through this duct, or at least none but the more fluid part of it. Thus the drier parts necessarily ascend through the aesophagus, whose orifice is larger than that of the duct into the mouth. Here the animal chews them again, macerates, and once more impregnates them with its saliva; and thus by degrees renders the aliment more fluid, till it is reduced to a paste of a prope [...] liquidity to pass through the duct which communicates with the third stomach: and here again it undergoes another maceration, before it passes into the fourth sto­mach, where the decomposition of the food is compleated, by being reduced to a perfect mucilage.

What confirms the truth of this explanation is, that while these animals suck, or are fed with milk and other fluid aliments, they do not chew the cud: and that they chew the cud much more in winter, and when fed with dry food, than in summer, when the grass is succulent and tender. In the horse, on the contrary, the stomach is very small, the orifice of the aesophagus very narrow, and the passage from the stomach to the intestines, or pylorus, very wide, which alone would render rumination impracticable; for the food contained in this small stomach, though perhaps more strong­ly compressed than in the large stomach of the ox, cannot re-ascend, because it may so easily descend through the capacious orifice of the pylorus. It is therefore owing to this general difference in the conformation of the parts, that the ox ruminates, and the horse cannot: but there is another particular [Page 31] formation in the horse, which renders him not only unable to ruminate, that is, to vomit without effort, but even hinders him from vomiting at all, though he should make the strongest efforts so to do; and this is, that the duct of the aesophagus en­ters so obliquely into the horse's stomach, that instead of opening by the convulsive motions of the stomach, it becomes contracted. Though this dif­ference, like all the other differences of conforma­tion observable in the bodies of animals, depends on nature when constant and unvaried; yet, in the growth, and especially in the soft parts, there are differences apparently constant, which however may, and actually do, vary by circumstances: for in­stance, the capacity of the ox's maw is not wholly derived from nature: it is not such by its primitive conformation, but is gradually rendered so by the large bulk of the aliments put into it; for in a young calf, or even in one that is older, if the animal is fed only on milk, and never on herbage, the maw is much smaller in proportion than in the ox. The very great capacity of the maw therefore proceeds from the extension occasioned by the large bulk of aliments put into it at one time; as M. de Buffon has clearly proved by the following ex­periment ^(b). He caused two calves of the same age, and weaned at the same time, to be fed, one with bread, and the other with grass; and at the expiration of a year, on opening them, the maw of the calf which had lived on grass and herbage, was become much larger than the maw of that which had been fed with bread. I have been the more particular in the above account of the manner in which ruminating animals are nourished, and of the causes why the horse can neither ruminate nor vomit, because it may afford some satisfaction [Page 32] to those who might not, perhaps, otherwise be able readily to assign a reason for their different ways of feeding.

A general caution proper to be attended to on this occasion, is, that great care should be taken not to over-stock a pasture with cattle; because the greatest profit really arises from their being con­stantly kept in good condition; especially those that give milk, and those that are big with young. The stinted breed of cattle which we often meet with, and usually impute to the poorness of the pasture, badness of the climate, &c. is in fact generally owing to the mismanagement of their owners, who, through a very ill-judged greediness, over-stock their pastures, and thereby disable the mothers from giving sufficient nourishment to their young, either before or after they are born: and this ori­ginal stinting sticks by them through life, unless they chance to get very early into a rich pasture; for then, indeed, they sometimes soon outstrip their original breed; a circumstance which proves, that if they were at all times equally well kept, the breed would be much mended.

As oxen are not worked much in the winter, good straw, and a little hay will then nourish them sufficiently: but during the time that they do la­bour, they should have a great deal more hay than straw, and even a little bran or oats before they go to work▪ In summer, if hay be scarce, they may have grass fresh cut from the field, or the young succulent boughs and shoots of ash, elm, oak, and other trees; but these last should be given sparingly, because an excess of this aliment, of which they are very fond, sometimes causes them to make bloody urine. Clover, lucerne, sainfoin, burnet, when these can be had; vetches, boiled barley, turnips, carrots, parsnips, cabbages, &c. are also excellent food for these animals. There is no need to mea­sure [Page 33] out the quantity of their food, because they never eat more than they want; and it is therefore proper always to give them more than they will eat ^*. They should never be turned into the pastures till about the middle of May; because the first growth of the grass and other herbs is too crude, and though they eat them greedily, they disagree with them. After they have spent the summer in the pastures, they should be housed about the middle of October; taking care that these transitions from green food to dry, and from dry to green, be not done at once, but by degrees.

The custom of giving salt among the fodder is of an old date, for Columella mentions it ^(c) as the practice of his time, and very properly recommends it much, as well calculated to promote their appe­tite, and consequently to assist their fattening. I have heard it observed by a gentleman from Ame­rica, that the desire for salt is much greater in cat­tle and horses at a distance from the sea, than in the countries near it; owing perhaps to a greater freshness of the water. Even in Switzerland, the native horses of that country are very fond of salt, and it is a constant custom to give it them. There are in several parts of America, distant from the sea, spots discovered by the wild beasts, such as deer and buffaloes, where the earth is of a saline nature, to which these creatures resort regularly, and lick the earth with their tongues. They are called salt-licks, and are sometimes an hundred or an hundred and fifty feet wide.

Salt mixed with hay, which has not been well [Page 34] got in, seems to act as an enemy to that fermenta­tion in the juices which raises the heat in the hay: for where it is mixed with paste or other soft sub­stances, it prevents putrefaction; probably by hin­dering the necessary preceding ferment. Thus it becomes useful in hay on a double account.

Though violent cold is very hurtful to these creatures, great heat is perhaps still more so. For this reason, in the summer-time they should be led to their work by break of day, and when it grows very hot, be either sent home, or left to feed under the shade of trees, and not returned to work again till three or four o'clock in the afternoon. In au­tumn, winter, and spring, they may be at plough from eight or nine in the morning, till five or six in the evening without intermission. But I cannot, by any means, approve of keeping them continually out of doors; especially for cows that give milk, or are with calf. It is surely inhuman to expose a creature to a degree of cold which it is not naturally fenced against.

Though oxen do not require so much attendance as horses, yet to keep them brisk and healthy, it will be proper, especially when they work, to cur­ry them every day, to rub them down, wash them, clear their feet of gravel and dirt, grease their hoofs, &c. They must also have drink twice a day, morning and evening. The horse likes a thick and warmish water; but for the ox it must be clear and cool. The pavement of their stables should be a little inclined, that wet may not rest on it, and they should also have dry litter laid under them.

The age at which oxen are generally fattened is their tenth year, because there is no certainty of succeeding therein afterwards, nor is their flesh so good when they are older. They may be fattened in any season of the year; but summer is commonly chosen, because it is done then at least expence. If [Page 35] it is begun in May or June, they are generally com­pletely fattened before the end of October. From the very beginning to fatten them, they must be taken from all work, drink often, and have plenty of succulent food, sometimes mingled with a little salt as before said; or, when a beast falls off his stomach, grass dipped in vinegar will also restore his appetite, and consequently help to make him fatten the sooner. They must not be disturbed while they are chewing the cud; and during the great heats, they should sleep in the cow-house, or some other shady place. By this means they will become so fat in four or five months, as to be scarce able to walk; so that if they are to be sent to any distant place, it must be by very slow journies that they are removed. Cows, and even bulls whose testicles have been knit, may also be fattened: but the flesh of cows is drier, and that of the knit-bull redder and tougher, than the flesh of oxen; and that of the bull has always a strong, disagree­able taste.

Turnips are made to yield a great profit in feed­ing and fattening of cattle, particularly in Norfolk, and, of late years, in several other counties in England. When large, they should be sliced, as well to enable the beasts to eat the quicker, as to prevent their choaking themselves, which they would otherwise be apt to do. Carrots are yet wholesomer, much more substantial, and conse­quently more profitable food: besides which, they render the flesh of the cattle that are fed with them firmer and better tasted, as the Flemings have long experienced: but a yet more nourishing food is parsnips, especially for m [...]ch-cows, which, when fed with them, give more milk than with any other winter fodder, and that milk yields better butter than the milk of cows nourished with any other substance. Cattle eat these roots raw at first, sliced [Page 36] lengthwise; and when they begin not to relish them, they are cut in pieces, put into a large cop­per, pressed down there, and boiled with only so much water as fills up the chasms between them. Our neighbours in Brittany reckon one crop of parsnips, used for feeding cattle, equal in value to more than three c [...]ps of wheat ^(b). Potatoes are another good and very heartening food, and may, as has been before said of parsnips, be parboiled when cattle like them best that way. Buck-wheat makes very good fodder for cattle; and so does, in particular, the yellow-flowered vetch. In Ger­many and Flanders, spurrey is preferred before any other fodder, not excepting even corn, and is found to produce the richest milk and best butter. Cab­bages, especially the Scotch kale and the great American cabbage, are reckoned preferable to tur­nips, in point of health as well speed in fattening, and it is said, that one acre of them will go as far as three of turnips: but it is to be observed, that in using them, especially for milch-cows, the wi­thered or decayed leaves should be thrown away, because they are thought to give a bad taste to the milk.

Clover is undoubtedly an excellent food for cat­tle, and we are told that one acre of it will feed as many of them as four or five acres of common grass: but they should never be turned into it in wet weather, nor whilst the dew is yet upon the plant, lest it should burst them. It should be given them sparingly at first, till it purges them: for when it has produced this effect, the danger is generally over. But of all the plants that are given to cat­tle for their food, none is equal to lucerne, either for early, speedy, or good fatting; for with this [Page 37] the grazier may begin fattening towards the end of April, and finish about the middle of harvest, when meat generally bears an high price. A large fatting ox may be allowed forty pounds, or per­haps more, of green lucerne each day ^*. All cattle are remarkably fond of lucerne, and always prefer that which has been cut a day or two, and stood twenty-four or forty-eight hours in a dry, shady place. By this precaution too all danger of its swell­ing them, which it might otherwise be apt to do, like clover and trefoil, is removed: only it is to be observed, that more caution should be used in giving it to cows, than to bullocks. When oxen or heifers are fed for the butcher with lucerne, the fat will spread itself through the lean, like veins in marble; and the flesh will be remarkably well flavoured.

Oil-cakes, meaning the residue of the seeds of lin, rape, or cole-seed, after their oil has been expressed from them, are well known to be great fatteners of cattle, especially if these drink plenti­fully with them: but they are apt to render the fat yellow and rank. To remedy this, the cattle should be fed with dry fodder, for a fortnight or three weeks before they are killed.

A beast is well-fed outwardly, that is to say, well covered with flesh, when his huckle-bones ap­pear round and plump, his ribs smooth, his flanks full, his neck thick, his cod round, and, on feel­ing him upon the nethermost ribs, the skin feels soft and loose; and if, besides the above marks, the setting on of the tail feels thick, full and soft, and the navel round, soft, large and plump, it is a sure sign that he is also well tallowed, that is, well fatted inwardly▪

[Page 38]All these creatures are very apt to lick themselves, when at rest, and this is thought to be an impe­diment to their fattening. To prevent it, all the parts of their bodies within their reach are rubbed over with their dung; without this precaution, their tongues, which are very rough, abrade, or take off their hair, which they swallow; and as this cannot be digested, it remains in the stomach, gathers together there, and forms by degrees round balls, called aegagropiles, which always hinder digestion, and sometimes grow so large as to be very troublesome, and even to endanger the life of the animal. They are, in time, covered with a brown crust proceeding from an inspissated muci­lage, which, by continual friction and coction in the stomach, becomes hard and glossy. These balls are found only in the maw: for if any hair gets into the other stomachs, it does not remain either there or in the intestines, but probably gets off with the excrements. However, this subject, and the disorders occasioned by these balls, will be treated of more fully in the fifth chapter of this book, where I shall speak of the distempers to which these animals are subject.

I cannot conclude this subject of the feeding of oxen, without adding M. de Buffon's just remark, that animals which have incisory teeth in both jaws, such as the horse and the ass, nip short her­bage more easily than those whose upper jaw is without incisories: and if sheep and goats cut the grass very close, it is owing to the smallness and thinness of their lips; but the thick-lipped ox can only crop the long herbage: and this is the true reason why he never injures the pastures in which he lives. As he crops only the extremity of the long herbage, he does not affect the root, and re­tards its growth but very little; whereas the sheep and the goat, by biting the herbage very close, both [Page 39] destroy the stem, and injure the crown of the root. The horse chooses the most slender herbage, and leaves the larger, whose stems are hard, to seed and multiply; whereas the ox crops those thick stems, and thereby destroys by degrees the coarser herbage. Hence it is, that, after some years, the herbage where a horse has lived becomes coarse; whereas that where the ox has fed becomes a fine pasture.

CHAP. IV. Of the Propagation of Cattle; Care of the Cow whilst pregnant, and Management of the Calf till fit for Slaughter, or for Work.

SPRING is the usual season for cows to be in heat. In this country, most of them admit the bull, and become pregnant, between the middle of April and the middle of July. Some indeed are more forward, and others more backward in their heat. They go nine months, and calve at the begin­ning of the tenth; consequently the regular season for calves is from the middle of January to the middle of April: but there is no scarcity of them during the whole summer, autumn being the time when they are least abundant. The tokens of the cow's heat are not at all equivocal: it is known by her frequent lowings, which are also more violent than at other times: she leaps on cows, oxen, and even bulls; and the vulva is inflated so as to project out­ward. The time of this strong heat should be particularly noticed, and the bull should be brought [Page 40] to her then; for if she be suffered to cool, she will not so certainly retain afterwards.

The bull, like the stallion among horses, should be chosen from among the most beautiful of the species, and between the age of three years and ten, as before observed; but the nearer he is to three, the greater will be his vigour. He should be large, well-made, and in good plight; his eyes should be black, his look proud, his forehead broad and curled, his head short, his horns thick, short and black, his ears long and shaggy, his muzzel large, his nose short and strait, his neck thick and fleshy, his shoulders and breast broad, his reins firm, his back strait, his buttocks square, his tail high-placed, long, and full of hair, his thighs round and well trussed, his legs thick, short-jointed, and full of sinews, his knees round, big, and strait, his feet far asunder, not broad, nor turning in, but spreading easily, his hoof long and hollow, his hide pliable, the hair of all his body thick, short, and soft as velvet, and his walk firm and steady.

The cow should be high of stature, her horns well spread, fair and smooth, her forehead broad and smooth, her body long, her belly round and large, and her udder white, not fleshy, but large and lank, with only four teats; these having been experienced to yield the most milk. She should also be young; and some hold it to be most advise­able for her to be of the same country as the bull, and as near as can be of the same colour.

The cow reaches the age of puberty at eighteen months, and the bull at two years; but though they are at that age capable of generating, it is ad­viseable not to suffer them to copulate under three years. The time of their greatest strength is from three to nine years, after which the best way of disposing of them is by fattening them for slaugh­ter. [Page 41] As they acquire the greatest part of their growth in two years, the duration of life with them, as with most other species of animals, is nearly seven times two years; and accordingly we seldom find them live above fourteen or fifteen.

Cows often retain at the first, second, or third time of covering; and when they are pregnant, the bull refuses to cover them again, whatever appear­ance of heat there may be in them. Indeed, their heat generally ceases almost immediately after they have conceived, and they themselves will not then suffer the bull to approach them.

Cows require greater care when pregnant than at other times; particularly, they should not then be suffered to leap over hedges, ditches, &c. or to do any other thing by which they may strain them­selves; for they are subject to abortion: conse­quently they must not by any means be used for draught whilst in that condition; but they should then he put into the richest pastures, provided they be not too moist or fenny, and for six weeks or two months before they calve, they should be fed more plentifully than usual; giving them in the summer-time grass in the cow-house, and in the winter bran, lucerne, sainfoin, burnet, &c. Du­ring this time they must not be milked, that fluid being then absolutely necessary to the nourishment of the foetus. Some cows, indeed, do not yield any milk for a month or six weeks before they calve; but those which have milk to the time of calving are both the best mothers and the best nurses; though it is generally bad and in small quantity. The same care and cautions must be observed at the delivery of the cow, as at that of the mare; or rather more, the former seeming to be on this occasion more spent and weakened than the latter. One indispensable point is, to put her in a separate stall, where she must be kept warm, at her case, [Page 42] and on good litter. She must be well fed for ten or twelve days after she has brought forth, with ground beans, corn, or oatmeal, diluted with wa­ter in which salt has been dissolved, and with lu­cerne, burnet, sainfoin, or good grass, thoroughly ripe. By this time she is usually recovered, and may therefore by degrees be put to her common way of living, and turned into the pasture; ob­serving not to take any milk from her during the two first months, that the calf may thrive the bet­ter; and besides, the milk is not then of a good quality ^*.

As soon as the young calf is born, whilst the mother licks it, or to excite her to do so, it is right to strew over it a couple of handfuls of salt and crumbs of bred mixed together. This licking strengthens the calf, or at least clears it of all filth, which could not be removed by any other means, because the young creature is then too tender to be handled without danger; and at the same time it should be made to swallow the yolk of a raw egg, likewise to give it strength.

The young calf should be left with its dam du­ring the first five or six days, especially if it be in winter, in order that it may be kept constantly [Page 43] warm, and suck whenever it pleases; and at the end of this time, by which it will have gathered strength and have grown visibly, it must be tied up in a separate pen at a little distance from her, that it may suck only when the keeper thinks proper; for it would exhaust the cow if left continually with her. Two or three times a day will now be often enough for it to suck; and when it has done suck­ing, it must be led back to its pen and tied up as before. After the mother is returned to pasture with the other cows, the calf should still be kept in the cow-house, and there made to suck twice day before its dam goes out.

If it be intended to fatten the calf speedily, and at the same time render his flesh fine and delicate, he should have every day about half a dozen raw eggs, and crumb of bread boiled in milk. This, in four or five weeks time, will render his flesh ex­cellent. Calves intended for the butcher should therefore not suck above thirty or forty days; but those designed for keeping should be left with the dam two months at least, because the more they suck, the stronger and larger they will be. The best for bringing up are those that have been calved in the months of April, May and June; for those which come later seldom acquire vigour enough to enable them to bear the inclemencies of the ensuing winter; cold making them droop, and often killing them. Thus calves designed for keeping should be weaned at two, three, or four months: but be­fore they are taken wholly from sucking, a little fine grass, or chopt hay, should be given them from time to time, to accustom them to this new ali­ment; after being used to which, they must be never suffered to come near their dam; either in the stall or pasture. They themselves should be sent to pasture every day, and remain there from morning to evening during the summer: but when [Page 44] the cold of autumn begins to set in, they must not be let out till late in the morning, and should be brought back early in the evening; and during the winter, the cold of that season being extremely de­trimental to them, they must be kept very warm in a close cow-house, be well supplied with water, have sainsoin, lucerne, burnet, &c. mixed with their common grass, given them in a cow-house, and be let out only when the weather is very fine. A great deal of care is necessary to bring them through the first winter, which is the most dan­gerous period of their lives: for if they survive this, the following summer will strengthen them so that they will have nothing to fear from the cold of a second winter.

It sometimes happens that a calf is troublesome to rear, because it will not readily take the teat, but must have it held a considerable time in its mouth before it will suck; and likewise some show for a long while a reluctance to suck at all, which is a sign of their having pimples under the tongue; a disorder to which young calves are subject, and which is easily cured by cutting them off with a pair of scissars, and washing the wound with vine­gar and salt: others rub them with hog's lard and salt pounded very fine.

In Spain, and some other countries, they place near a young calf in a cow-house one of those stones called salegres, which are found in the mines of rock-salt: by licking this salt-stone whilst its dam is at the pasture, it becomes so hungry and thirsty, that when the cow returns, the calf eagerly seizes the teat and sucks his fill; and by this means he fattens and thrives much faster than those to which no salt is given.

The clods of curdled milk which are found in the third and fourth stomach of a sucking calf, [Page 45] are, after being dried in the air, the rennet made use of for curdling milk. The longer it is kept the better it is: and a very little of it is sufficient to turn a large quantity of milk, as is well known to all who keep dairies.

As to the rest, the management of milk and dairies is a subject so generally and so well un­derstood, that it might be needless for me to en­large upon it here, any farther, perhaps, than just to observe in general, that the dairy should be kept extremely clean and well aired, at a distance from all disagreeable smells of any kind whatever, and that it should be so situated as to be of as equal a temperature as possible during the whole year, and therefore open to the north in summer, and to the south in winter. The dairy-maids should not only be clean in their persons, but also such whose perspiration is not rank. The vessels in which milk is now kept are generally lined with lead, be­cause it is a substance that cleans easily: but great care should be taken that the milk do not remain in any leaden vessel till it contracts the least degree of acidity; for if it does, it soon dissolves part of the lead, a very little of which will be of extremely bad consequences to health, by occasioning the most dangerous disorders in the stomach and bowels, and often depriving people of the use of their limbs, as is daily seen in painters, and in those employed in making white-lead.

CHAP. V. Of the Diseases of Horned Cattle.

THE treatment, as generally practised, in the several diseases of horses is, in similar cases, so applicable to the whole species of animals commonly distinguished by the appellation of Horn­ed Cattle, that little remains to be added here, un­less it perhaps be, to point [...]ut some few particu­lars more peculiarly relative to the management of these last. The Romans paid very great attention to them, as sharing with man the labours of the field; and as the climate of Italy is more kindly than that of England, surely whatever care was necessary there, cannot be less requisite here. The writers of that country may therefore properly be­come our guides again on this occasion.

Nature has cloathed with thick furs, or warm covering, such creatures as she intended to be ex­posed to the severity of the cold: but as cattle are not sheltered with such defence, I really think it cruel to expose them too much to the inclemencies of the winter, as many among us are apt to do ^*. Such was not the practice of the Romans, who very expressly enjoin, that the ox, in particular, [Page 47] be defended from the cold by a warm stable, and if it can be done, that there be a fire in it, which both Vegetius and Columella ^(a) declare to be of great advantage to this animal, as he thereby breathes a dry air, which carries off not only the exhalations from his own body, but also other nox­ious vapours. According to them, the manger should be so contrived that their food be not lost among their feet; and their stalls should be placed on dry ground, with a gentle slope to carry off their urine, and kept constantly clean with dry lit­ter, especially for the labouring ox. How different from these directions is the condition of too many of our farmers' yards where the cattle often stand knee-deep in dirt!

When the ox returns from labour, his neck should be washed, and rubbed for a long time; his whole body too should be freed from clay or dirt, especially his feet, which should be well washed.

In summer, it is proper that cattle should stand in cool shades during the heat of the day, and in the night in the open air; for they contract as ma­ny diseases by suffering too great heat, as by being exposed to too much cold.

It is of great benefit to them to give to each, about once a week, a raw egg, and some salt in a pint of wine or ale; and to this may likewise be added bruised garlic, vervain, and rue.

Cattle do not require the clearest water, nor are they very much hurt by it if it is dirty; never­theless, it is the duty of the person who attends them, to see that they drink the best water, and such as is clean, and that they be well fed. There is no danger of their over-feeding themselves; for when nature is satisfied, they lie down and chew the cud. Labour breaks, heat vexes, and cold pe­netrates [Page 48] an animal that is empty and exhausted, sooner than one that has been well fed: and surely no man will grudge them a sufficient, plentiful allowance of food, who considers how far the price of oxen which perish through want, exceeds the expence of that food.

If oxen are put upon running at their full speed, or if they are otherwise over-fatigued, at any time of the year, but especially in the summer, either they contract thereby a looseness, which proves pernicious to them, or slight fevers: for this ani­mal, being naturally slow, and rather adapted to easy labour than that of swift motion, is grievously hurt, if forced to go beyond his strength.

Neither swine nor hens should come near their cribs; for when an ox has swallowed hen's dung with his food, he is presently tormented with vio­lent pains in his belly; and when he swells with it he dies. In case of his having swallowed any, the best way is to give him three ounces of parsley-seed, half a pound of cummin-seed, and two pounds of honey, mixed together, and poured warm down his throat, to force him to walk, and to rub him heartily till the draught moves his belly. The ashes of any wood well sifted, boiled in a sufficient quantity of oil to render them liquid, and then poured down the ox's throat, will also be of great benefit against the bad effects of this sort of dung.

But if an ox swallows hog's dung, or more espe­cially the filth which a sick sow has vomited, he is presently seized with so contagious a disease, that it speedily affects a whole herd. When therefore there is the least suspicion of this distemper, the cattle must be removed and separated to pastures where none such have been fed, that so they may not hurt one another: for by feeding they infect the grass, and the water by drinking of it. An ox, though otherwise in perfect health, may perish by [Page 49] the smell and breath of the diseased blowing upon him. When this happens, the dead carcase must be carried to a distance, and buried deep, lest the sound be infected by it, and the negligence of the owner be imputed (as is usually done by fools, says Vegetius) to the divine displeasure. In the case here spoken of, he recommends half an ounce of squills sliced thin, infused in a pint of wine, with about two ounces of salt, to be given every morn­ing to each creature thus infected. But as infec­tious diseases will be the professed subject of the last part of this work, I shall not enlarge upon them here, any farther than just to mention the similitude which Mr. Osmer thinks there is be­tween the distemper in horses and that amongst oxen.

Indigestion is very hurtful to oxen, and is know [...] by the following signs: frequently belching, loath­ing of their food, noise in the belly, heavy eyes▪ the creature neither chews his cud, nor licks him­self [Page 51] as usual. In this case, pour down his throat two gallons of water as warm as he can bear it, and soon after give him about thirty leaves of cole­wort boiled in water, and afterwards soaked in vi­negar; and he must abstain from food for one day. Neglected indigestion brings on colics, which is to be treated, as the same complaint is in horses.

I shall here mention hoving, a disorder which is almost peculiar to the horned cattle.

This disorder proceeds from a too sudden fer­ment in their green succulent food, whereby the elastic air let loose by the fermentation, but con­fined by the hard faeces which do not speedily enough give way to it, becomes highly acrid, like the gass arising from fermented liquors, which of­ten proves mortal to those who breathe it. The method of cure should therefore be, clearing the great gut of hard excrement, injecting a stimulating glyster, and giving cooling things internally. This agrees with what M. Bourgelat proposes, when he says ^(b), ‘Thus it is, for example, that with nitre given in half a glass of brandy, and often even with emollient glysters only, we have saved con­siderable numbers of oxen ready to expire in their pastures, after vain endeavours had been used to ease them, according to the common practice, by many incisions made in the skin, doubtless with an intention to disengage the cel­lular membrane from the air that filled it, and of which carminatives would inevitably have in­creased the disorder, and hastened the death of the beast.’

Farmers are apt to fall into a great error when their cattle have got the better of this disorder; and that is, by letting them become costive again, and consequently liable to a return of the same [Page 52] danger when they next feed on succulent plants; whereas were they to continue to give them green food after a purging has been once brought on, no farther inconvenience could ensue. Immerging them in cold water when thus distended brings on an immediate purging, and thereby saves their lives.

The mouths and tongues of horned cattle are subject to the same sorts of swellings as those of horses, and alike productive of an inability to eat.

These should also be cut off with a knife or scis­sars, and then rubbed with salt and let heal. If they have no appetite to their food, and yet no signs of indisposition appear; it will be proper to rub their chops with salt and garlic beaten toge­ther, or with some other stimulating substance.

The cure of internal diseases in cattle is so nearly the same as for horses, and the doses of their me­dicines so much alike, that a repetition of them here seems needless. The causes of their lame­nesses, and the methods of curing them, are also similar; and the feet of both require so nearly the same cutting and care of the hoof, that the least degree of intelligence will suffice to vary them properly.

The castration of calves is likewise performed i [...] the same manner as that of horses.

CHAP. I. Of the Qualities and different Kinds of Sheep.

"SHEEP have golden feet, and wherever they set them, the earth becomes gold," say the Swedes, by way of expressing their high estimation of this animal. In effect, there is not any one do­mestic creature which yields greater profit to man than sheep do. Their flesh, their milk, their skin, their intestines, their dung, in short, every part of them, is necessary for some use or other, and turns to good account.

Though their flesh and milk furnish us with va­riety of excellent food, yet their wool is the chief object, especially to a commercial nation; for of it is formed, in Britain, the staple-commodity to which we owe the wealth and grandeur that render us the arbiters of power in Europe.

At the same time that this creature is the most useful, it is also, in itself, one of the most defence­less against enemies: providence intending, as it would seem, that it should owe its very existence to our care, and be entitled to our protection, in return for the means of enjoyment and wealth which it affords us: for it not only wants protec­tion but care also, more than any other domestic animal. Sheep are of a very weakly constitution; much fatigue exhausts them; they can ill bear ex­tremes [Page 54] of heat or cold; their diseases are many, and most of them contagious; and their yeaning is attended with difficulty and danger.

They are said to be sensible to the charms of mu­sic, so as to feed more assiduously, to be in better health, and to fatten sooner by the sound of a pipe: but perhaps it may be more rightly thought, that music serves to amuse the shepherd's tedious hours, and even that the origin of that art was owing to this solitary life.

Sheep love their keepers and those who take care of them; they follow them, and obey their voice. It must however be observed, that if the shepherd has not a watchful eye over them, one or other of his sheep may easily stray from the rest of the flock, wander into places it is unacquainted with, and there fall down a precipice, or tumble into a hole or ditch, especially if the creature has been frightened, which sheep very easily are; for when they have once lost their way, they run strait on, without stopping, and always directly against the wind, particularly if it blows hard, and they chance to be in an open place, a wide road, or on the borders of the sea. They are very fond of light, and never thrive well in dark places; and such is their fondness for society, that frequently a sheep left alone will pine away, become emaciated, and quite lose his strength.

The re-establishment of the best kinds of sheep in England, and greater care of their fleeces, are objects well deserving the attention of government: for, notwithstanding all our boasted improvements, it is certain that the quality of our wool in general has been on the decline for some time past ^*. These [Page 55] useful creatures, which were the chief wealth of former ages, become of still greater value as art and industry increase among us. One cannot, therefore, but be astonished at the indifference into which this nation has fallen with regard to her sheep, and especially too at a time when every other country is exerting its utmost endeavours to improve its breed, and the manner of managing its flocks. At this very instant, we are strongly called upon to be particularly attentive to this great ob­ject, by the measures which the French are indefa­tigably pursuing to improve the breed of their sheep, by introducing those of e [...]ery country where they excel.

We have no particular accounts of what our sheep were in antient times; though we may pre­sume that our wool was always sought for by fo­reign manufacturers, because our history informs us, that the duty paid on the exportation of it was a considerable article of the royal revenue ^*.

If we take a general view of the whole of Eng­land, we shall find, that the temperature of our climate, and the quality and almost perpetual ver­dure of our pastures, render it one of the best situated countries in the world for raising flocks of sheep. We are free from every discouraging cir­cumstance with regard to them. We have no armies of insects or reptiles that are enemies to them; no wolves, nor any other animal whose na­ture is to prey upon them, if we except foxes, of which again the numbers are scarcely more than [Page 56] suffice to give proper healthy exercise to men, who might otherwise indulge themselves in too much ease. Our frost and snow are generally of short continuance. Our extensive downs, our hills, the sides of our mountains, and even our steep rocks, abound in fine grass, which feeds a smaller breed of sheep; whilst our richer pastures of Lincolnshire and Ely maintain those of a larger size: and we are surrounded with a sea-coast, the air of which is thought to be particularly favourable to the health and thriving of sheep, as well as to the fineness of their wool. The air of the sea is found to be so wholesome and favourable to sheep, that the hus­bandmen who live at a distance from that element, find their advantage in recruiting their flocks with sheep from near the sea.

Columella ^(a) mentions the several kinds of sheep most in repute in his days, and gives an instance of the judgment of his uncle, M. Columella, an ex­cellent husbandman, in mending the breed of his own sheep, by coupling with them rams brought from Africa: and indeed it is highly probable, that the excellence of the Spanish wool, now so justly valued, took its rise from combinations of this kind during the long residence of the Moors in that kingdom.

Don Pedro IV. King of Castile, was the first prince who introduced the good kind of sheep which they now have in Spain, by bringing thither the Barbary breed. In two ages, they began to decline, when Cardinal Ximenes restored the breed, by procuring a fresh supply of rams from Barbary, that is to say, of rams bred by the Arabians, thereby exciting amongst the people an emu­lation which continues to this day; and by fixing their attention to this object, which [Page 57] has hitherto preserved the goodness of the Spanish wool ^*.

The memoirs of the Royal Society of Agricul­ture at Rouen say ^(b), that in the fifteenth cen­tury, our Edward IV. obtained a number of this race from the king of Castile, which thro [...] very well, and laid the foundation of the excellency of our wool. Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth, con­tributed much to its perfection, by directing the attention of government to this great national con­cern. Men of distinguished judgment and inte­grity were commissioned to superintend the proper distribution and future care of the Castilian sheep. How this commission has since come to be neg­lected, I know not. These commissioners sent two Castilian ewes and one ram to every parish in which the pasture was thought proper for them; and the care of them there was intrusted to the yeomen and most considerable farmers, to whom peculiar privileges were at the same time granted on this account. Farther, in order the sooner to have a quantity of good wool, the finest native ewes were also singled out, and covered by the Spanish rams, from whence proceeded a bastard race, much superior in quality to those of that country. Shepherds were taught the art of ma­naging sheep, and written instructions were given them, which, I am sorry to say it, are now lost ^†. [Page 58] At this time began the custom of folding them in the warm, kindly weather; and the same practice was afterwards continued during the winter. The abode of the Spanish sheep in England altered by degrees the nature of their wool: it became much longer, but did not con [...]inue so fine as before; owing, pro­bably, to the difference of the pasture. Our wool is however whiter and cleaner than that of Spain, through the great care which the English take to keep their flocks free from filth; an attention hitherto neglected by the Spaniards.

[Page 59]To the above mixture of the Spanish sheep with the natives of this island, and the greater or less degeneracy of their posterity, is owing that we now see in England three sorts of sheep; the com­mon, which are very small; the bastard, which are of a middle size; and the strong, fine and plen­tiful breeders.

The Gloucestershire, particularly those of Cotes­wold, the Herefordshire, Shropshire, and the isle of Wight sheep, yield the finest wool of any in England: they are short-legged, and have com­monly a black forehead or a black head. The Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Buckingham, and Lincolnshire sheep, are the largest and best shaped, and their wool is the deepest of any we have, but not so fine as that of the former. The Yorkshire sheep are likewise pretty large, but their wool is coarse: and in general, that of all the Northern counties is long, but hairy. The Welsh sheep are the smallest of all, and their wool is by no means the finest; but in return their flesh is excellently well flavoured. The wool of the Castilian sheep is un­doubtedly much finer than that of even the best English; but it is less in quantity, chiefly because the sheep themselves are smaller: though there are in some parts of Spain sheep larger and covered with more wool than any of the English. For their wool, the English are certainly the next best to the Spanish.

The Irish wool in general, but especially in Li­merick, Kilkenny, Kerry, Waterford, Cork, and some other counties, is of the fine long combing kind, scarcely surpassed by any of the sort in Eng­land. This is the wool that is most acceptable in foreign parts, where they have short wool enough of their own, or may easily procure it from Spain and Portugal.

In the last century, the Dutch brought from the [Page 60] East-Indies a race of tall sheep, long and thick in the body, with wool proportioned to the stature of the animal. This valuable breed has succeeded be­yond expectation in the island of the Texel and in East-Friesland. One of these sheep yields a fleece of from ten to sixteen pounds of a fine silky wool; which the Dutch sell for English wool.

The Flemings also procured some of the same [...]ort of sheep, which they breed about Lisle and Varneton, where they thrive well, and are known by the name of Flemish sheep.

The largest of these sheep are six feet long from head to tail. In Holland, they give four lambs in the year; whereas in Flanders they bring but two, of which the strongest is reared in order to keep up the flock. Each of these likewise yields as far as sixteen pounds of [...]ool. They would be prefer­able to those of the Texel, if the same care was taken of them, and if they were more numerous than they are. Most of the sheep about Lisle are a bastard race, proceeding from the Indian rams and the ewes of the country, and yield from six to ten pounds of wool, little inferior to that of the true breed. Their flesh is well-tasted and wholesome: a carcase of it weighs from ninety to a hundred and twenty-five pounds, and yields about thirty pounds of suet. They are in themselves the finest, largest, and strongest of any sheep. They require, indeed, a larger quantity of food; but on the other hand they are indifferent in regard to its quality: they are easily taken care of, naturally healthy, and if sick easily cured. Their wool differs little from that of England, only it does not so easily take fine colours. It is not so fine as it might be, for several reasons, the principal of which are, that they are seldom folded; that they are kept too warm [...] their houses during the winter: that the litter [...] not changed often enough, whereby it not only [Page 61] dirts, but also gives a bad smell to their wool; and that sufficient care is not taken to keep them from hedges, bushes, and brambles, which not only tear off their wool, but scratch their skin, which, if not healed in time, degenerates into the scab.

The Sw [...]des, after having tried in vain to mend the breed of their sheep in the reign of Queen Christiana, set the same design again on foot in the year 1725▪ They imported into their country a number of the best kinds of sheep from England and Spain, and put them under the management of skilful shepherds, to be treated according to their several natures. After the example of England, heretofore, they established schools for training up shepherds, who were sent from thence to the different parts of the kingdom; and those schools are continued to this day. They put the foreign rams to their native ewes, and from thence proceeds a valuable bastard race. By this care, Sweden now has, notwithstanding the rigour of its climate, wool which nearly resembles the English and Spanish. The French have, in several parts of their kingdom, numbers of sheep of the true Spa­nish breed, and they multiply there exceedingly; so that, as the authors of the Maison Rustique ob­serves ^(c), it might be easy for them, by following the method formerly practised in England, to esta­blish every where that race, which would yield twice or thrice as much profit as their own common sheep, as well in point of size, of the goodness of their lambs and rams, of fruitfulness, and of milk, as of the quantity and quality of their wool and skins.

The provinces of Berry and Beauvais are those in which the most and best sheep in France are reared. Those of Beauvais, and some other parts of Normandy, are the largest, and the fullest of [Page 62] suet. In Burgundy, they are very good; but the best are those that are fed on the sandy coasts of the maritime provinces of France. In Poitou, Provence, the neighbourhood of Bayonne, and some other parts of France, there are sheep which seem to be of a foreign breed: they are stronger, larger, and have a great deal more wool than those of the common breed. These sheep are also more prolific than the others; it being nothing extraor­dinary for them to have two lambs at a time, and to yean twice a year. The rams of this breed, en­gendering with the common ewes of the country, produce an intermediate breed, partaking of the two from which it proceeds.

Some think that the present Italian sheep are the offspring of a mixture of the Asiatic and the Eu­ropean kinds. But be that as it may, there are in the Bressan ^(d), towards Mantua, sheep whose wool is indeed coarse, but of so quick growth that they are sheared three times a year, namely, in March, in July, and in November. It is true, they would not yield so great a quantity of wool in cold coun­tries; but in warm ones they will, every where; and yet they are of so robust a constitution, that they fear neither rain, cold, nor even hoa [...] frosts, but will feed at all times in the open field, pro­vided the ground be not covered with snow. They yield plenty of milk during four or five months of the year, and excellent cheese is made with it. Another kind of Brescian sheep, called bastard sheep, but for what reason I know not, [...]ears shearing twice a year, and is much esteemed▪ though smaller than the former. But the [...] wool of all Italy proceeds from that kind of sheep which the Brescians call gentili, and of which num­bers are fed in the Trentin, especially about the vil­lages of Ghede and Montechiaro: but as these [Page 63] sheep are extremely difficult to rear and take care of, and as the fineness of their wool is owing to the climate and pasture of the country, they pro­bably might not thrive elsewhere.

The wool of the Ruffian, Polish, and Tartarian sheep, is better than that of the common German sheep; and accordingly the Swedes make use of it in their manufactures of cloth, stockings, &c.

All the above-mentioned sorts of sheep certainly form but one greatly-diversified species, which in M. de Buffon's opinion ^(e) hardly extends beyond Europe: for as to those long and broad-tailed crea­tures so common in Africa and Asia, and to which travellers have given the name of Barbary sheep, they seem to him to be of a different species from our sheep; as do likewise the American vigonia and lama▪

Daily experience proves that the European sheep in some degree alter their very nature; for in­stance, in Lincolnshire they are large, heavy, and [...]low in their gait. On the downs of Sussex, Wilt­shire, and Dorsetshire, they are smaller, more hardy, and fleeter; and in the mountains of Wales they are still less of size, and so active as scarcely to be confined by any inclosures. If we extend our view farther, we shall find, that the kind which yields the softest and finest wool in Britain, when sent to the West-Indies, becomes hairy like a goat. It is also observed in North-America, that the quality of their wool depends much on the tem­perature and climate of the country: in some of the middle provinces, such as New-York, the Jer­seys, &c. their wool is of so good a quality, that a sample of it sent hither some years ago sold for as high a price as our best; although this was only from a common tobacco plantation, where no [Page 64] care had been taken of it since America was first settled ^*.

CHAP. II. Of the Management of Sheep.

AS the size and welfare of the sheep, and the goodness of their wool, depend much on the nature and quality of their pasture, this be­comes an article of the utmost importance to the husbandman, and therefore deserves a particular inquiry.

In order to their being rightly managed, the owner should be very careful what kind of shep­herd he entrusts his sheep to: for the shepherd not only accompanies them to the field, but should also take care that they do not feed in improper places, improper, on account of the quality of the food and drink, as well as other dangerous circum­stances. He should likewise be particularly atten­tive that no improper rams mix with the flock; to give immediate relief to those that fall sick, espe­cially in lambing-time, and for this reason he should be well acquainted with their diseases. In [Page 66] short, his presence and care should be so constant, that the sheep shall obey him out of a kind of love. He should be vigilant and circumspect, govern them with great clemency, and says Columella ^(a), who strictly enjoins the same rule to the keepers of all sorts of cattle, be more like a captain and leader than a lord and master. When he threatens them it should be with a loud shout and shaking his staff at them: but he never should throw any offensive weapon at them, nor remove to any great distance from them; neither should he lie down, or sit down, but, unless he be going forward, he should stand, to be the better able at all times to look around him, to see that neither the slow and big with young, whilst they loiter, nor the nimble, whilst they run before, be separated from the rest; lest either a thief or a wild beast deceive the heed­less inattentive guardian.

We find by Columella, that it was an early cus­tom to lead sheep to far distant pastures at different seasons of the year; and the Spaniards have still retained this practice, as will appear from the fol­lowing abridgment of a judicious account of their manner of managing the royal flocks, transmitted by a gentleman in Spain to the late Mr. Peter Col­linson, F. R. S.

The above, or a similar practice, might be fol­lowed to advantage by the counties which border on Wales, or on the Grampian hills in Scotland: for in both those countries there is summer-pasture for a much greater number of cattle than they can maintain in the winter. In both, the pasture is not only dry and healthy for sheep, but they would likewise thereby avoid the great summer-heats to which they are at times exposed, even in this mo­derate climate.

In dry and high grounds, where the herbage is thick and fine, the sheep are much more healthy, and their flesh is [...] much finer flavour than that of those which are fed in moist vallies and low plains; unless those vales be sandy, or very dry, or near the sea. These last are, indeed, the best of all, because the herbage there is naturally sprinkled with salt. Also the ewes fed on them yield more milk, and of a better taste.

Sheep should not, if possible, be suffered to feed on low, moist grounds, or such as have been lately drained, unless these are become very dry; and even then it should be only in the middle of the day. Grounds over which mineral or hard waters run are also prejudicial to them; as is likewise grass in which the webs or eggs of grass-hoppers, or other insects, are found; or in which the dung of rats or field-mice lies. When sheep are forced to feed on such pastures, it is adviseable to rub their mouths frequently with salt, and to have salt laid [Page 76] for them in vessels, where they will greedily lick it one after another; for they are remarkably fond of salt, and nothing is more healthful when given in moderation.

The world is greatly indebted to the celebrated Linnaeus for the inquiry which he has excited in regard to such plants as are agreeable or hurtful to each domestic animal. He has observed, in a dis­sertation intitled Pan Succus ^(b), that sheep eat 3 [...]7 sorts of Swedish herbs and plants; and that they leave 141 of them untouched, as being hurtful, or less nourishing, and therefore less suitable to their nature. A similar account of our English plants might be of great service to our husbandmen and owners of land, especially to such as are concerned in grazing.

Among other interesting observations, Linnaeus remarks ^(c), that the milfoil, or yarrow, is a food which sheep are particularly fond of; and I have been told by a gentleman who had been at much pains to clear his ground of this plant, that having turned some sheep into a field where there yet re­mained a good deal of it, he was greatly surprised at finding the next day that the sheep had scarcely left a plant of it, but had eaten it quite down to the ground. He then lamented his former in­dustry, and laid down as an easy rule, by which every one may judge what plants are most agreeable to the different animals, to observe which are those that they prefer on being turned into a fresh pasture, or what are the plants in common pastures which the creatures feeding there never suffer to raise to seed. Thus the milfoil never runs to seed but in places where sheep cannot get at it. It is the same with the chamomile, though so bitter a plant, and with the narrow-leaved plantain or [Page 77] ribwort. These plants have another advantage at­tending them with regard to sheep, which is, that as they strike deep roots they retain their verdure the longer, and therefore deserve to be carefully cultivated by those who have flocks of sheep.

Burnet has, on all occasions, been found to be peculiarly pleasing and healthful to sheep. An in­stance of its being both happened to a gentleman of my acquaintance in the year 1766; the summer of which being extremely wet, sheep in general were much afflicted with the rot. This gentleman, very attentive to rural oeconomy, bought some sheep in the autumn of that year, which he put into a field of burnet, and killed them during the winter, as his family-consumption required. Every one of them was found to be in a perfectly found state; whilst every sheep belonging to a neighbouring gentleman, and which had been part of the same flock, which was Welsh, was disented. It was very remarkable too in these last sheep, that, though they had plenty of grass and turnips, they could not be confined; but the moment they were put into the field of burnet belonging to the former gen­tleman, they became perfectly quiet, and never endeavoured to stir from thence, though the gate was left open.

The common opinion that sheep hurt lucerne in the autumn by biting it too close, is without foun­dation; for the spring-shoots have no communi­cation with those that remained in the autumn, but are quite fresh shoots issuing from the crown of the root Lucerne is an excellent food for all sheep in the autumn, and particularly so for ewes and lambs in the spring.

Clover is a very succulent food for sheep, and these creatures are extremely fond of [...] if the shepherd is not attentive, it may pro [...]e d [...]ng [...]rous to them. He should always turn them into the [Page 78] clover with their backs to the wind, and not leave them too long in it. It is said by some, that the wind mixing with the clover, which they swallow gree­dily, swells them, and makes them die in a few hours: others believe that it is the venom of the reptiles which this plant attracts, that occasions these pretty frequent accidents: but, in truth, the cause of this swelling is undoubtedly the same as was before assigned for the hoving of cattle; and accordingly the remedy directed for it by the Royal Society of Agriculture at Rouen is, as soon as this misfortune is perceived to have happened to some of the flock, to throw cold water over their bodies, if it be at hand, or to pen them up so closely as to make them press strongly one against another. This wiil restore them to their natural state.

Sheep likewise readily eat turnips, and thrive up­on them, when they have been accustomed to them early; but they do not relish this food when it has not been offered to them till after they are grown old; however, if they are kept fasting two or three days, most of them take to it; and when they have once tasted it, they become fond of it, and feed ve­ry kindly upon it. In some places people feed their lambs with turnips till the middle of April, though they then begin to run up to seed. Some parboil them a little at first, till their cattle, and particu­larly their sheep, are accustomed to them: but a lamb only three weeks old will, after it has once eaten of this food, scoop out a raw turnip with great delight. Parsley corrects the inconveniences which may arise from the too-great moisture and coldness of the turnips, and therefore should be given them in plenty when they are fed upon this root. The sheep also are fond of it.

Carrots are another excellent food for sheep, and these creatures are remarkably fond of them. One acre of these roots, well planted, will fatte [...] [Page 79] a greater number of sheep, or bullocks, than three acres of turnips, and their flesh will be firmer and better tasted. Parsnips are also another excellent and profitable food for them.

It is a custom in most countries, especially where the verdure of the grass is not so constant as in Bri­tain and Ireland, to collect the leaves of trees during the summer, or before they turn yellow, for feeding all kinds of cattle, and particularly sheep; and when these are mixed with their hay, they have a good effect. Straw, especially of oats, cut and mixed with their hay, is also recommended during the winter. The bark of the branches of the fig-tree, and its buds, are likewise mixed with their hay in countries where that tree abounds.

It is undoubtedly most healthy for sheep to range at large; but as that is not in the power of every one, they should at least be kept as airy as possible.

We are so happy in the mildness of our climate in England, and in our safety from wolves, that our sheep lie out of doors all the year. Yet I can­not help thinking that they would be greatly bene­fited if there were at least sheds under which they might retreat in stormy weather: for though sheep are well cloathed by nature, yet when the rain is so constant and heavy as to soak through their fleeces, they become quite chilled, and that damp cold in them is frequently the cause of many dis­orders. It is said, that when they are enclosed in the narrow compass of a fold, they cherish one another by their mutual warmth: but this can­not give relief to the damp which each of them feels.

In climates less fortunately circumstanced than ours, the sheep are housed in winter, and fed chiefly with dry fodder. They are led out every day, unless the weather be very bad, though this [Page 80] is rather to air and walk than to seed them. In win­ter it should be near ten in the morning before they are led out, and they should be brought back again early in the evening, after having had an opportu­nity of drinking. In spring and autumn they are led to pasture as soon as the sun has dispersed the hoar-frost or dew on the grass, and continued there till sun-set. It is sufficient that they drink once a day in these seasons; and when brought back they should find fodder, though in less quan­tity than in winter. It is only during the sum­mer months that they can live entirely on the pas­tures, and they should then have water in their power twice a day. They may in this season be let out early in the morning; and in very warm weather they should be led to cool or shadowy places during the mid-day heat, which is found to be remarkably prejudicial, disordering their heads, and throwing them into vertigoes. In very hot countries, Columella advises, that they be led in the morning so that their backs be turned to the sun, and in the evening so that the head may be shaded by the body.

Many people doubt whether it be more profitable to fold sheep, than it is to let them range a field at large both night and day; on the principle that their dung and urine are in either case pretty equally spread over the surface of the ground. Custom has, however, given it in favour or fold­ing; and I believe it will be found, that if equal numbers of sheep are confined during the same time in two fields, that in which they are folded will be the most effectually and most regularly dunged; and therefore I must incline to prefer folding.

In the heat of summer, the fold should be large enough to admit of the sheep lying at a moderate distance from each other: for, even in the open [Page 81] air, a great heat is generated by the sheep when forced to be close together; and more than an or­dinary degree of warmth should be avoided at all times. As the weather becomes colder, the ex­tent of the fold may be diminished; but special care should be taken never to pitch it in a damp place, particularly in rainy weather, or winter; for no­thing is so prejudicial to sheep as their being laid wet. On this account it is that in Sweden, since the late regulations there, they have in some pro­vinces a kind of covered fold going upon wheels, so that it can be moved from one place to ano­ther: and I am persuaded, that if this practice was introduced, especially in rich, low pas­tures, a considerable advantage would attend it, particularly in preventing the rot and purging which sheep are liable to in wet weather.

Where the great degree of cold, or any other cause, renders it necessary to house sheep in the winter, their cotes should be built on a dry spot; the sheep should have sufficient room in them, and openings should be made in [...] upper parts to car­ry off the heated air: they should not, on any ac­count, be made too warm, nor should the dung and litter ever be suffered to rise too high in them. The racks for the sheep should never be fixed to the wall, but hang from the roof, so that they may be raised or lowered at pleasure. They should never hang too high; because when the sheep are obliged to raise their heads too much, little bits of their food are apt to fall among their wool, which they intangle, and also in their eyes, where they being on inflammations, and sometimes blindness. The rack should therefore not be higher than the flanks of the sheep. The roof of the cote should be covered with laths rather than with straw, or other such material, because the dust, chaff, or insects, falling from these last would damage the [Page 82] wool. Spiders especially are very hurtful to sheep. The Swedes are so particularly careful in this res­pect, that they even white-wash the walls of their sheep-cotes.

When the winters are very severe, or the sheep are in great danger from ravenous animals, it be­comes necessary to lodge them in houses, or cotes, during the winter ^(b). Such cotes should be built in dry and airy places, free from springs, and from the coming in of water any other way. Whilst the sheep are housed, great care should be taken that the cotes be not kept so close as to render the air in them too warm, and that the sheep have very sufficient room to lie down. In order to secure them from too much heat, the best way of ad­mitting a supply of fresh air will perhaps be by windows in each end, near the roof; for it is known that the heated and putrid air ascends, and there­fore it will be discharged by these windows; for there will be a constant current of air from the one to the other, as the wind shall happen to set. The sheep will, by this means, be kept cool, without having openings through which the wind would blow upon their bodies partially, and thereby oc­casion coughs and colds, as every one can testify from his own experience.

The proportion of space which Mr. Hastfer, an ingenious Swede, advises ^(c) as a rule in building these sheep-cotes, is to allow six feet square fo [...] each sheep ^*; the height should be proportioned to the extent of the building, and to the number of [Page 83] sheep; but there must be at least ten feet between the floor and the roof, so that when the depth of dung and straw shall amount to four feet, there may still remain an height of six feet for the heat to ascend in: for when the hot exhalations of the sheep have not sufficient room to ascend, they re­turn back, and fall upon the lungs of the sheep, open their pores, and make them sweat more than ever. Consequently great care should always be taken to make these buildings high enough, and large enough to prevent such immoderate heat ^†.

A cote twenty feet long should be ten feet high; that is the proportion for small cotes: but to twenty feet more in length there must always be added two feet more in height; that is to say, that for forty feet of length there must be twelve feet of height, and so in proportion for larger sizes. The breadth is generally half of the length: that is the best symmetrical proportion, and gives the greatest strength to the roof: though Mr. Hatsfer would have them rather exceed the above dimen­sions in point of height, because that contributes greatly to keep the air purer than it would other­wise be, and nearer to the temperature of a cool summer's day, or a fine clear day in autumn, which is the degree of warmth most to be desired, and that for the following reasons in particular:

"1. In the spring, when the cold is greater abroad than in the cote, it is wrong to keep the cote too warm, because the sudden change from heat to cold is too sensibly felt by the sheep, has an influence on their blood, and necessarily affects their strength and health.

[Page 84]"2 In winter, the sheep, by passing suddenly from hot to cold, and from cold to hot, cannot but get coughs.

"3. It is plain, that if too great perspiration is hurtful to sheep in summer, when fresh grass gives them the most strength, it must be much more so in winter, when they eat only dry hay, or even straw, which affords them less strength, and less nourishment; especially as the heat, which ought to prevent, or at least moderate, the bad effects of the superfluous humours, is at the same time eva­porated and wasted.

"4. The heat which penetrates through the pores into the gross winter's wool, makes it grow too much: now this wool is not only of less value than the other good wool which the sheep are to keep till shearing-time; but it falls off of its own accord as soon as the sheep pass from the cote into the cold spring air; and then this loss of their wool causes illnesses in them, and even death.

"The floor of the sheep-cote should be paved either with stones, or with bricks or clinkers, and raised a little archwise in the middle, in order that the urine of the sheep may run off easily on all sides through small holes made for that purpose at the bottom of the building. Some cover this floor with earth, and others with sand, to the depth of five or six inches, in order that the urine of the sheep may soak into it, and thereby render it fit for manuring of land. The floor itself may indeed be made of sand, as is the practice of some; and in that case, instead of raising it in the middle, it should be somewhat lower there, in order that the urine may penetrate thoroughly into the sand; and when it is sufficiently impregnated, it is covered with new sand, or thrown out of the cote with the dung of the sheep, and laid up in a heap [...] manure.

[Page 85]"It is likewise to be observed, that of whatever height the cote may be, the dung in it should ne­ver be suffered to increase to more than four feet deep: for which reason the sides of the cote should be lined with wood to that height in the inside. The cote should be more or less high in proportion to the number of sheep kept in it; for by this means the heat will be more or less great, as it will rise to a greater or less height.

"In whatever manner the floor of the cote is made, it should always be covered with fresh straw before the sheep are put into it; as well for their pleasure as for their health. By this means too their wool is preserved from filth; and when the floor is made of wood, as is also the way of some, the straw preserves the sheep from having their skin or their flesh hurt by splinters, or their wool by turpentine in the boards. This straw must be re­moved from time to time, and in some cases pretty often. Care must likewise be taken that there be neither splinters nor turpentine in the side-linings towards the bottom; for which reason the wood used there, and indeed as high as the sheep could reach from the top of the greatest quantity of dung that ought to be in the cote, should not be touched with either axe or plane, but left in its natural round form, with only the rough bark thoroughly peeled off it, and the wood then left for some time to dry in the sun, in order that all its resinous parts may be exhaled. Such is the method of the Swedes when they build cotes of this kind.

"Besides the above-mentioned windows at each end of the cote, intended chiefly to purify the air in it, there should likewise be other common win­dows at convenient distances in the sides of this building; because, as was before observed, sheep are fond of much light, and never thrive well in dark places.

[Page 86]"Their fodder should stand in ricks near the cotes, and be kept as free as possible from dust and all other impurities.

"The sheep in the cote should be foddered in cribs made for that purpose, as well for the sake of saving, as to prevent the falling of any thing upon their wool; and for this reason these cribs should be placed in the middle of the cote; for if any hay chances to fall upon the sheep, they pull off each others wool in trying to eat it.

"The cote thus built, however small it be, must be divided into two parts at least, in order to sepa­rate the sick sheep, or such as are ready to lamb, from those which are not in either of these cases: but they who would have a perfectly complete build­ing to house their sheep in, should divide it into several compartments, in proportion to the number and kinds of their sheep, and according to the other circumstances attending them. These compart­ments may be made of whatever size is thought most proper, provided the sheep have but room enough in them. Or, which would seem to be an improvement on Mr. Hastfer's plan, the cote should rather be built separate, because then, besides the more effectual parting of them in case of need, each kind of sheep will naturally go to the home where they are fed.

"Besides the above-mentioned compartments, it is necessary to have a moveable crib, about four feet high, going upon four wheels of seven or eight inches diameter each, to be drawn from one place to another. The use of it is to bring the sheep close up together in a small compass, when one would either make them sweat, or count them over. By this means their rubbing one against another, by which they lose a great deal of wool, is avoided.

"It is likewise necessary to have a small build­ing [Page 87] separate from the common cote or cotes, to keep apart such sheep as are attacked with conta­gious diseases, in order that their breath may not infect the others.

"As to the colour of the sheep-cote, some would have it to be white, or of the colour of the wood it is built of, in order that the sheep big with young may not see in it any thing to surprise them.

"The best covering, or roof, is that which is made of straw or holly. The roofs made of boards are apt to warp, and let in the air through their crevices.

"Great care must be taken to preserve the cote free from spiders and their webs.

"The outside should be smooth, and [...]ee from every kind of glutinous substance, at least as high as the sheep can reach, lest they should rub them­selves against it, and thereby tear off their wool.

"There should be gutters all along the lower part of the roof to receive and carry off rain.

"As soon as the cote is finished, it should be fumigated in the inside, by burning in it hoofs or horns of cattle rasped, the hair of cattle, woollen rags, brimstone, and boughs of juniper with their fruit on."

Mr. Hastfer's above directions appear to be chiefly calculated for a woody country: but where stones are plentiful, the walls will be best built with them, and tiles and s [...]ates will make proper cover­ing for the cotes.

A certain fixed time of the year cannot be ob­served in all countries for shearing of sheep, be­cause the summer does not advance equally in each of them. The best way therefore is to be directed by the weather, so that the sheep may neither suffer by the cold when stripped of their wool, nor be injured through too great heat by being made to [Page 88] wear it too long. After they are shorne, they should be anointed with something that will destroy any remaining vermin. Columella ^(d) recommends for this purpose a strong decoction of lupins, lees of wine, and the dregs of oil, of each equal quantities, mixed together. Some use a decoction of tobacco in salt water. After the skin has been soaked with one or other of these liquors for three days, the sheep should be washed in the sea, if near; other­wise in water in which salt has been boiled.

The we [...]hers have generally more wool than the ewes, and it is also better. That of the neck and the top of the back is prime; that of the thighs, tail, belly, throat, and head, is not so good; and the worst is that which is taken from dead beasts, or such as are sick. White wool is also preferred to the grey, brown, and black, because it will take any dye. Strait wool is better than curled; and it is even said that the sheep whose wool is too much curled are not in so good a state of health as those whose wool is straiter.

The general colour of sheep is a dirty white, or pale yellow: there are also many of a blackish brown, and not a few spotted with a yellowish white and black.

The flock should be examined every year, in or­der to pick out such as begin to grow old, and are intended for fattening; for as these require a dif­ferent management from the others, they should then be formed into a separate flock. They should be led abroad in summer before the rising of the sun, that they may feed on the grass whilst it is yet moistened with dew; for nothing forwards the fat­tening of wethers more than a great quantity of mois­ture: and as, on the other hand, nothing obstructs it more than too much heat, they should be [Page 89] brought home, or at least driven to a shady place, at about eight or nine in the morning, before the sun begins to be too powerful, and salt should then be given them to excite thirst. About four in the afternoon, they should be led a second time into cool and moist places, and be again made to drink as much water as they can before they are either housed or folded at night. Two or three months of this management will give them all the appear­ance of being full of flesh: indeed they will be fat­tened as much as they can be: but as this fat pro­ceeds only from the great quanity of water which they drink, it may properly be looked upon as no better than an oedema, or bloated humour, which would in a short time turn to the rot; the only means of preventing which is to kill them whilst in this state of fatness: though even then their flesh, far from being firm and juicy, is extremely insipid and flabby. To render their flesh perfectly fine and good, they should, besides feeding on the dew and drinking a great quantity of water, have at the same time more solid food than grass. To this end the shepherd should also, in the season, turn them, into the fields, to glean, as soon as the corn has been taken off. They may be fattened in any season, even the winter not excepted, by only keep­ing them apart in a sheep-cote, and feeding them with good hay, meal, or barley, oats, wheat, beans, &c. mixed with salt, to make them drink the more copiously. But in whatever manner, and in whatever season they are fattened, they must be disposed of immediately; for they cannot be fat­tened twice, and if they are not killed by the butcher, they will die by diseases of the liver. Three months are at all times sufficient to fatten them; but less will do near the sea.

Ewes fatten very fast near their pregnancy, be­cause they then eat more than at other times: but [Page 90] their flesh, and especially that of an old ewe, is flabby and insipid. That of the ram, though he has been knit before fattening, is always rank and ill-flavoured. The flesh of the wether is by far the most succulent, and the best of all common meats.

The proper time for castration is when the lambs are five or six months old, and the weather mild. The best way of performing this operation is by in­cision. The testicles, which are easily separated from the bag, are then drawn out at the wound, and cut off. The lamb will probably be sick and dull for a little while after the castration, and there­for it will not be improper to give him for two or three days a small quantity of salt, to prevent a loss of appetite, which this operation often occasions.

The antients tell us that all ruminating animals have suet; but this is strictly true only of the goat and sheep, and that of the sheep is in greater quan­tity, whiter, drier, firmer, and of a better quality than the other. Fat differs from suet, in that it continues always soft; whereas suet hardens as it grows cold. It is chiefly about the kidneys that the suet is found; and, as was before observed of the horned cattle, the left has always more of it than the right. There is also a great deal of it in the cawl, and about the intestines; but this suet is far less firm and good than that of the kidneys, the tail, and other parts of the body. Wethers have no other fat than suet; and so predominant is this fat in their constitution, that all the extremities of their flesh are covered with it. Their ver [...] blood is not without it; and the seminal lymph i [...] so saturated with it, as to appear of a different con [...]istence from that of other animals.

CHAP. III. Of the Propagation of Sheep.

THE ram is capable of generating at eighteen months, and a ewe may yean at the end of a year: but it is better to stay till the ewe be two, and the ram three years old; for the produce of these, if too early, or even the first at any time, is always weak, and of a bad constitution. One good ram will suffice for twenty-five or thirty ewes.

The qualities required in a good ram are, that he be strong and comel [...]: his head must be large and thick; his forehead broad, round, and well rising; his eyes large and black; his nose short; his neck thick, and arched like that of a fine horse; his body long and raised; his shoulders, back, and rump broad; his testicles large, and his tail long; his legs small, short, and nimble: he must also have horns; for those which have not any, as is the case of some, are very indifferent creatures for breeding, at least in climates like our's. The best rams are white, with a large quantity of wool on the belly, tail, head, and ears, quite down to the eyes; and particular care should be taken that neither the mouth nor tongue be either black or speckled, because the wool of the lambs would most probably partake of this defect.

The best ewes for propagation are those which have most wool, and that close, long, silky, and white; especially if they have also a large body, a thick neck, and an easy, light gai [...].

The natural season of the ewe's heat is from the beginning of November to the end of April; but [Page 92] they may be brought to conceive in any season, by giving them provocative foods, such as bread made of hemp-seed, or oatmeal, oil-cakes, &c. and water in which salt has been diluted. Each ewe should be covered three or four times, and then separated from the ram, which always prefers the older sheep, and neglects the younger. In the season of copulation, they should not be exposed to rain or bad weather; wet hindering their reten­tion, and a clap of thunder often producing abor­tion. In a day or two after they have been co­vered, they should be returned to their common diet, and not have any more salt-water; because the continual use of this, as well as that of hemp-seed bread, or other hot aliments, would infallibly cause abortion: but they may always be given to the ram for [...] time before he is put to the ewe. Ewes go five months, and yean at the beginning of the sixth. They seldom bring more than one lamb at a time. In hot climates they yean twice a-year, but in colder countries only once. Those which are rather lean than fat, bring forth most easily.

Some put the ram to their ewes about the end of July, or the beginning of August, in order to have lambs at Christmas, or early in January: but then they run a hazard of the lambs being destroyed by the cold, for they are extremely tender creatures. However, the ram is given to the much greater number in the months of September, October, and November; and lambs are accordingly to be had in plenty in February, March and April. They are also to be had in May, June, July, August, and September; there being no scarcity of them but in October, November, and December.

When a ewe is near yeaning, she must be sepa­rated from the flock, and carefully watched, in or­der to her being assisted, if needful; for the lamb often presents itself cross-wise, or with its feet fore­most, [Page 93] and in either of these cases the ewe's life would be in danger if she were not helped. As soon as the lamb is yeaned, it must be raised on its feet, and at the same time all the milk in the ewe's udder should be drawn out, because it is vi­tiated, and would be very noxious to the lamb, which must therefore be kept from sucking the udder is replenished with fresh milk. The lamb must be kept warm, and should be shut up with its dam for three or four days, that it may lea [...] [...]o know her. During this time, the ewe should be fed with good hay, barley-meal, or bran mixed with a little salt: and her drink should be water, the chill of which has been taken off▪ mixed with little flour, bean-meal, or ground millet. At the end of four or five days she may be gradually brought back to the same kind of food as the other sheep, and be returned to the flock; only taking care that she be not driven too fast, nor too far, lest her milk should be heated: and some time after, when the sucking lamb shall have gathered strength, and be­gins to play, it may be left to follow its dam to the pastures; no farther care being then necessary; for it will find its dam amidst a very numerous flock, and seize her dug, without ever being mistaken.

Lambs yeaned between the beginning of October and end of February must be kept in the house, on account of the cold, and be suffered to go out only in the morning and evening to suck; but about the middle of April they may be turned into the open fields. Some time before this is done, a little grass should be given them daily, in order to ac­custom them by degrees to this new food. They may be weaned at the end of one month; but it is better to let them continue to suck for six weeks or two months.

The largest, most vigorous, and thickest-fleeced lambs, especially if their wool be all white and with­out [Page 94] spots, are the best for keeping. Those of a weakly appearance are generally disposed of to the butcher. Lambs of the first yeaning, as before ob­served, are never so good as those of the following: and it is a general rule with all good husbandmen, rather to bring up the young of their cattle of every kind, than to sell them off when young; the profits in the former case being by much the most consi­derable.

The ewe yields, during seven or eight months, plenty of milk, which is good food for children and peasants. It also makes good cheese, especially if mixed with that of cows. Ewes may be milked twice a day in summer, but only once in winter, viz. immediately on their going to pasture, or at their return.

Ewes eat more during their pregnancy than at other times, and accordingly they then fatten very fast: but they are also then very apt to hurt them­selves, so as, frequently, to miscarry, and some­times to become barren from that time: nor is it very extraordinary for them to bring forth mons­trous productions. If no accident befalls them, and they are properly tended, they are capable of yeaning during their whole life; that is, to the age of ten or twelve years: but generally they break and become sickly when they are turned of seven or eight. A ram lives to twelve or fourteen years; but is no longer fit for propagation after eight: he should therefore then be knit, and fattened with the old sheep; though even then his flesh will be rank and ill-tasted: that of an old ewe is at best flabby and insipid: the flesh of the wether is most succulent, and the wholesomest of all common meats.

CHAP. IV. Of the Diseases of Sheep.

A Shepherd well versed in feeding his flock pro­perly during the different seasons of the year, and skilled in the methods of curing the several disorders to which sheep are subject, is a very va­luable person, and therefore should be sought for with the utmost diligence; for on his care and abilities the welfare of the flock greatly depends. How injudiciously then do they act, who resign the care of their sheep to boys, or to the least de­serving of their servants!

Mr. F. W. Hastfer, the Swedish gentleman be­fore quoted, and to whom the world in general, and his own country in particular, is much in­debted for a well-methodized set of Instructions eon­cerning the manner of rearing and improving sheep, re­duces the general causes of their diseases to the five following heads, viz. 1. Too great heat; 2. Se­vere cold; 3. Water; 4. Fright; and 5. Unhealthy pastures. If due care is taken to prevent the in­conveniences which arise from these causes, there will not be much room to fear a general sickness or mortality amongst them.

It is generally thought that the brain of a sheep is more affected by heat than that of any other crea­ture: hence the inconveniences which arise to them from the burning heat of the summer; and as their wool forms a warm covering around them, the least additional heat greatly increases that which they have naturally. Even in the winter, sheep, particularly in foreign countries, often suffer from [Page 96] too-great heat of their cotes, which their shep­herds shut up very close, and can scarcely be per­suaded that they are doing them an injury. In this very wrong practice, which prevails in the northern parts of Europe, and in France, the heat becomes prejudicial on a double account; first, from the heat itself, which, in crowded cotes, sometimes rises to the dog-day heat; but chiefly by the pers­piration of the sheep, which not only makes the air less fit for breathing, but by degrees renders it so putrid as to give rise to fevers of the worst kind.

Though sheep can bear cold much better than heat, yet they should not on any account be ex­posed to a too severe degree of it; and above all, particular care should be taken that the pregnant ewes do not drop their lambs in the open air when the weather is very frosty, because that might crip­ple the lamb for life.

Too rainy a season is very prejudicial to sheep, a [...] was remarkably experienced all over England in the summer of 1766, when whole flocks perished with the rot. They who had luckily sown burnet before were then made thoroughly sensible of its good effect, not only in preventing this fatal disease, but also in curing sheep that were then in almost a dying condition. Parsley would have the same ef­fect, as it is probable that both of these plants car­ry off the too great humidity by urine. Whe [...] neither of them can be had, the sheep should be housed during heavy and constant falls of rain, [...] fed with dry hay, and, as much as possible, shel­tered from the wet.

Mr. Hastfer, ^(a) recommends the following po [...] ­ders, as efficacious preservatives in such seaso [...] ▪ He calls the first of them ant-powders, and the [...] [Page 97] others drying-powders. The ant-powder is [...] thus:

"In autumn, when the ants have done work­ing, take the whole of an ant-hill, ants and all, scooping it out quite to the bottom, in order to have the more of the masti [...] or resinous substance which they provide for winter. Dry it well in an oven, till the ants and the earth can easily be crum­bled into dust betwixt one's fingers; then pound and sift it very fine, and keep it in a vessel that has been used for salted meat or pickled herrings; first drying the vessel well before the powder is put into it. Give to each sheep a quarter of a pint of this powder mixed with twice as much oats, in their cribs, or otherwise, after having sprinkled it with pounded salt, very salt water, or human urine. It will make the sheep sweat, and experience will prove its good effect."

Mr. Hastfer adds, that this ant-powder is much used in Germany, as the writings of Colerus, Bay­er, and others testify, that he has seen it given in some places in Sweden, though not many; and that he himself has used it on several different occasions, and found that nature frequently affords in simple remedies as much real utility as in the most costly. In the year 1746, which was a very wet year in Sweden, he gave this powder, by way of trial, to four sheep, once a week, and when they were killed the next autumn, their gall and liver were perfectly found, whilst other sheep, which had not taken it, were full of gall, and their livers co­vered with hydatides, or watery tumours, in great numbers and of all sizes.

Of his drying-powders, as he terms them, one is composed of two ounces of crude antimony, four ounces of bay-berries, four ounces of sulphur, two ounces of nitre, pounded together, and mixed with [...] pounds of salt. This is then to be put into the [Page 98] cribs for the sheep to lick of it, and into their drink, especially in autumn after they are housed, and after a rainy summer, when there is room to fear they may have suffered by the wet.

The other of these powders is made thus: Take a pound of crude antimony, half a pound of nitre, and a quarter of a pound of red tartar; pound them well separately, and mix them together. A good spoonful is enough for six or eight sheep. Mix it with a little meal and dry wormwood, make it into a paste, and give the bigness of a walnut of it once or twice a week to each sheep, in autumn and spring, when a general mortality prevails. This case excepted, it is used only as a preservative once in three weeks or a month; and then not till after the ewes have lambed, and the lambs are somewhat biggish. The sheep must not be suffered to drink the same day that they have taken this remedy; but on the contrary, they should be driven about a little, backwards and forwards. This powder purges them by urine and sweat, drives out their too-abundant humours, and is a very salutary medicine.

The same ingenious writer gives us also, from Van Aken's Pharmacopoei [...] for sheep, the following recipe for making the Pomeranian powder, famed for its efficacy in curing many disorders in sheep.

"Take a pound of the grey powder of compound salt-petre; of gentian and bay-berries, each four ounces; juniper-berries, common salt, roots of angelica, elder, pimpernelle, aristotolochia, monks­hood, cyclamen, black hellebore, root of fern, betony, millepertuis, carduus benedictus, rhue, millefoil, fumetory, and hysop, an ounce and a quarter of each, with two ounces of tops of worm­word, two drams and an half of assa- [...]oe [...]ida, six balls of castor prepared. Pound all this into a gross coarse powder, and give to each sheep half an [Page 99] ounce of it two or three times a week in the morn­ing, mixing it with paste, or making it up into pellets. They are very fond of it. When con­tagious distempers prevail amongst sheep, and there runs from their mouths a thick and glutinous sla­ver, it is a good sign; but people who have large flocks, as the shepherds of Pomerania, who have sometimes five or six thousand sheep to take care of, may give this powder to a dozen or more sheep at a time in their water, a little thickened with flour; taking care that each sheep has, as nearly as pos­sible, its portion of half an ounce of it. When this powder is given them, they must not have drank water for two days before.

After they have taken this remedy, they should be driven about a little, and not suffered to drink till the next day, when juniper and wormwood should be put into the water that is given them. If they are dropsical, they should not be let drink oftener than every third day. There are extraor­dinary proofs of the excellent effect of this powder in cases where other celebrated remedies have not done any service; and experience will convince those who use it properly; for it not only expels the noxious humours, and dries gently the scab and small-pox, but likewise eases the breast, so that the sheep that it has been given to twice a week have recovered their health, and in a fortnight after, the dropsy being come on, and their heads swelled again as big as ever, they have been per­fectly restored by the use of this powder given two days together. Care must therefore be taken to use this powder in time, in case of a relapse.

A little salt should be sprinkled over almost all the medicines that are given to sheep: it will make them relish what might otherwise be loathsome; and so far as can conveniently be, they should be [Page 100] physicked when the weather is fine: however, this must necessarily admit of many exceptions.

Pestilential diseases will be so fully treated of in the latter part of this volume, that I shall only mention here Mr. Hastfer's having experienced the efficacy of the above powder of antimony, in pre­serving sheep from pestilential infections, even when those which had taken it chanced to be mixed with sheep that were infected. He likewise recommends the use of rhue in their food, and suspended round the neck, when there is a fear of such disorders: and also to prevent their being bitten by snakes, these reptiles having an aversion to that plant.

CHAP. I. Of the Character, Properties, and Uses of Swine.

OF all the quadrupeds that we know, or at least, certainly of all those that come under the husbandman's care, the Hog appears to be the foulest, the most brutish, and the most apt to com­mit waste wherever it goes. The defects of its figure seem to influence its dispositions: all its ways are gross, all its inclinations are filthy, and all its sensations concentrate in a furious lust, and so eager a gluttony, that [...]t devours indiscriminately whatever comes in its way, not excepting, fre­quently, its own young immediately after they are born, and too often infants in the cradle; for, whenever these creatures meet with any thing fat, moist, or unctuous, they begin with licking, and soon after devour it. They are consequently fond of blood, and bloody flesh, which they will some­times even when putrid, to the great detriment of their health, though they do not, like the wolf, attack other animals on purpose to kill and devour them. So unbounded is their ravenous desire to fill the vast capacity of their stomachs, and so undistinguishing is their taste, that M. de [Page 119] Buffon ^(a) declares he has several times seen a whole herd of these creatures, at their return from the fields, stop and gather round a heap of clay newly dug up, all of them licking this earth, though none of the most unctuous, and some of them swallowing a pretty large quantity of it. This demonstrates their gluttony to be of a piece with their brutal nature: nor is their sense of feeling less sluggish than their taste; for, not only the harshness of their hair, the hardness of their skin, and the thickness of their fat, render them little sensible of blows, but even mice have been known to form lodgments in their backs, and to eat their very skin and fat, without their showing any signs of feeling them. Their other senses are indeed quick and acute enough: though still they seem not to have any one clear sentiment; for the young hardly know their own dam, or at least are very apt to mistake, and readily suck the first sow that will let them. Fear and necessity probably impart a little more instinct and sentiment to the wild race of hogs; for the young of these are strongly at­tached to their mother, and she, on her side, shows herself more careful to provide for their wants, than the tame sow does: and as to the very great quickness of sight, hearing and smell in hogs, especially of the wild breed, it is so well known to the huntsmen who go in quest of these crea­tures, and particularly of wild boars, that they find it necessary to watch for them in the night, to observe a profound silence, and to keep them­selves to the leeward, that the hogs may not scent the effluvia of their bodies, which affect the organs of smelling in these animals so strongly at a con­siderable distance, that they immediately betake [Page 120] themselves to flight, as if aware of some impending danger ^*.

The natural defect in the senses of taste and feeling in swine, is also farther increased by a dis­ease which renders them even absolutely insensib [...]e, and which is not perhaps so much owing to the texture of their skin, as to their filthiness, parti­cularly in feeding, and especially to their often eat­ing putrid aliments: for neither the wild hog, which does not eat such ordure, nor delight in mire as the tame one does, but generally subsists on acorns, mast, and roots, and lives in dry places, nor a sucking pig, is subject to this disease; whence it follows, that the way to preserve the common hog from it is, to keep him in a clean stye, and to give him plenty of wholesome food.

With all its defects, however, this animal is one of the most profitable that an inhabitant of the country can rear; for, besides its young, which generally are very numerous, and always fetch a good price, its flesh sells for rather more than that [Page 121] of the [...] or sheep, and its lard for near twice as much [...] their suet ^†. Likewise the flesh of this animal takes salt better than that of any other, and keeps longer in this state. Its blood, all parts of its bowels, its feet, and its tongue, are dressed and eaten. The fat of the intestines and cawl, which is very different from the lard, makes what is called the hog's grease▪ nor is the skin without its uses, both saddles and sieves being made of it; and of the bristles are made various kinds of brushes, shoe­makers' ends, &c. and lapidaries use them in po­lishing of diamonds. The dung of this animal is accounted a fine manure for fruit-trees.

CHAP. II. Of Feeding and Fattening of Hogs.

THESE creatures are so very stubborn and un­tractable, that even an active man cannot well take care of more than fifty of them at a time. In autumn and winter, where it can be done, they are driven to such woods as afford plenty of wild fruits: in summer, they feed best in moist and marshy places, where they find worms and roots; and in spring they range the fallow fields. From the month of March to October, they are turned out twice a day to feed; in the morning from the time that the dew is exhaled till ten o'clock, and from two in the afternoon till the dew begins to re­turn in the evening. In winter they are driven abroad but once a day, and then only when the weather is fine; because the dew, snow, and rain [Page 122] rain are hurtful to them. Indeed, such is their aversion to bad weather, that if a sudden storm comes on, or only a heavy shower of rain, away they run, full speed, each endeavouring to be foremost, and all continually crying out, till they reach their stye, or some other place of shelter. The youngest cry most and loundest. This cry is very different from their usual grunting: it is a cry of grief, resembling that which they send forth when they are bound in order to be killed. The boar cries less than the sow; and the wild boar is seldom heard to cry at all, unless when wounded in fighting with another. The wild sow cries more frequently; and both, when surprised and terri­fied, snort with such vehemence as to be heard at a considerable distance.

These animals are very fond of worms, and par­ticularly so of some roots, especially those of the wild carrot; and to come at these they turn up the earth with their snouts. The wild boar, whose head is longer and stronger than that of the com­mon hog, delves deeper, and generally continues the furrow in a strait line; whereas the tame hog digs only here and there, and at the same time more slightly: but as a great deal of damage is fre­quently done by this means, all hogs should be care­fully kept from cultivated lands, and suffered only to run in woods and fallows.

The common way of fattening hogs is, to give them plenty of barley, mast, cabbage, and other greens boiled, and a great deal of water mixed with bran. By this means they acquire a thick stratum of seam, and are rendered sufficiently fat, in two months: but this fat is neither very firm nor very white; and the flesh, though good, is flabby. They may also be fattened at still less ex­pence in countries which abound in mast, by driving them into the forests in autumn, when the [Page 123] acorns, wild chesnuts, and beech-masts are ripe. They there eat all kinds of wild fruits, and grow fat in a short time; especially if, at their return in the evening, plenty of luke-warm water be given them mixed with a little bran and the meal of tares; for this makes them sleep, and increases their flesh to such a degree that they are sometimes scarce able to move; but the fat thus acquired is disagreeably oily. They likewise fatten soonest in autumn, when the weather begins to grow cold, because they then perspire much less than in sum­mer, and have greater plenty of food. But the best way of all to fatten them for their flesh to ac­quire a fine flavour, and their fat to be firm and palatable, is, to shut them up for a fortnight or three weeks before they are to be killed, in a clean paved stye, without litter, and to feed them only with pure dry wheat, allowing them at the same time but very little drink. The hog thus treated should be about a year old, full of flesh, and pre­viously half fattened; for the older the hog is, the longer time it requires to fatten, and its flesh is also proportionably worse.

Castration, which must always precede the fat­tening of any animal, is usually performed on hogs at the age of six months, and either in spring or autumn; but never in very hot or very cold wea­ther, because each of these is equally dangerous to the wound, and renders its healing difficult; this operation, which every tinker knows how to do, is most commonly performed by incision, though sometimes by a ligature only, as in the ram. Those which have been castrated in the spring are generally fattened the next autumn, and commonly killed before they are two years old; though they grow very considerably in the second year, and would continue so to do for several years longer; those which are particularly remarkable for their [Page 124] height and corpulence, being only creatures of a greater age, which have been turned out several years to feed on mast. Their time of growth does not seem confined to four or even five years; for the boars which are kept for propagation continue to grow in their sixth year; and the older a wild boar is, the larger and heavier he becomes. It is true, that the head of an old wild boar is the only part worth eating; whereas all the flesh of the wild boar and sow not a year old, is delicate, and of a fine grain; but the flesh of the tame boar is still worse than that of the old wild boar, and can be rendered eatable only by castration and fatten­ing, unless it be when made into brawn.

The antients used to castrate such wild pigs as they could at any time find means to steal away from their mother, and afterwards carried them back into the woods: the castrated wild hogs not only exceeding the tame in bigness, but their flesh being also better.

CHAP. III. Of the Propagation of Swine.

BOTH the male and female of this species of animals are able to copulate when only nine months or a year old: but it is better to let them double that age before they are put together; for the first litter of a sow, when she is not a year old, consists of only a few, and those weak and even de­fective pigs. She may be said to be in heat at all times; and even when she is pregnant she seeks the boar, which, among animals, may be deemed [Page 125] an excess; the female in almost every species re­fusing the male after she has conceived. The heat of the sow, which is almost continual, declares it­self more particularly at intervals, by her emitting no small quantity of a thick, whitish liquid, and by uncommonly violent motions which always end with her weltering in the mire. She goes four months, and farrows at the beginning of the fifth; soon after which she again grows eager for the male, becomes pregnant a second time, and thus farrows twice a year. The wild sow, which re­sembles the tame one in all other respects, farrows but once a year; probably because of the scarcity of food, and the necessity she is under of suckling and feeding all her litter for a considerable time: whereas the tame sow is never suffered to suckle all her pigs above a fortnight or three weeks; after which eight or nine only are left with her, and the rest are carried to market. They are fit for eating in a fortnight; and as few sows are wanted, the castrated pigs being more profitable to rear, and their flesh the best to eat, most of the sow pigs are disposed of, only two of these, and seven or eight boar pigs, being generally left with the sow. She should never be permitted to suckle any of her pigs above two months; and even at the end of three weeks it is best to drive them to the field with her, that they may by degrees accustom themselves to feed as she does. In about five weeks after this, they are weaned, and whey mixed with bran, or at least warm water boiled with greens, is then given them morning and evening.

The boar for propagating should be short and thick of body, rather square than long, with a large head, a flat short snout, large flagging ears, small fiery eyes, a large thick neck, a swagging belly, broad buttocks, short thick legs, and thick and black bristles, white hogs being never so strong [Page 126] as black. In the sow, the body should be long, the belly broad and capacious, and the teats long. She should also be of a quiet disposition, and taken from a fruitful breed. When pregnant, she must be kept apart from the boar, or he would probably do her some mischief; and when she has farrowed, she must be fed plentifully, and also watched, lest she should devour some of her pigs: the boar espe­cially must be removed, for he would show them still less mercy. The sow is commonly put to the boar in the beginning of spring, in order that, by farrowing in summer, her pigs may have time to grow and gather strength and flesh before winter: but when it is intended that she should farrow twice a year, she is had to the boar in November, that she may farrow in March, and be again put to him in May. Some sows farrow regularly every five months. The wild sow, which, as was before observed, farrows but once a year, admits the boar in the months of January or February, and farrows in May or June. She suckles her young three or four months, leads them abroad, follows them, and keeps them from straying, till they are three or four years old; so that it is not uncommon to see wild sows with their young of the present and preceding year about them.

Wild boars are called sounders during their first year, and beasts of company till they are three years old, because they keep together till that age, and never go alone till they are strong enough to en­counter the wolf: by this means these animals com­pose among themselves a kind of squadron, and in this their safety consists; for when they are at­tacked, the largest form themselves into a close circle round the lesser, to keep off the enemy. The same method of defence is also practised by tame hogs; so that there is no occasion to make use of dogs to secure them from beasts of prey.

[Page 127]It is not uncommon for boars to live twenty-five or thirty years. Aristotle says, that hogs in general live twenty-years; and adds, that the boars en­gender, and the sows bring forth, till the age of fifteen.

I cannot conclude this last chapter of my work, without continuing to observe with M. de Buffon, that this species of animals, though known, and even found in great plenty all over Europe, Asia, and Africa had never been seen in America till it was carried thither by the Spaniards, who turned great numbers of black pigs loose on the continent, and also on its larger islands, where they have in­creased prodigiously, and in several places become wild. They resemble the European wild boars; but their body is shorter, their head larger, and their skin thicker than in other hogs, which in hot cli­mates are totally black, like the wild boar.

A ridiculous prejudice, which owes its conti­nuance to superstition, deprives the Mahometans of this animal: they are taught to look upon it as unclean, and so far from eating, that they dare not even touch it. The Chinese, on the contrary, are very fond of hog's flesh: it is their most com­mon food, and is said to have animated them to refuse the doctrine of Mahomet. The Chinese hogs, which are the same with those of Siam and India, differ from those of Europe, in that they are smaller, their legs considerably shorter, and their flesh much whiter and more tender. Some persons breed them here, and they copulate and engender with our common swine. The negroes also breed vast numbers of hogs; and though they are very scarce among the Moors, and in all Ma­hometan countries, wild boars abound as much in Asia and Africa as in Europe.

CHAP. IV. Of the Diseases of Swine.

THE only disease that I know of which seems to be peculiar to swine, is a kind of leprosy, commonly called measles. When it seizes them, they become dull and sleepy. If the tongue is pulled out, the palate and throat, will be found full of blackish spots, which appear also on the head, neck, and the whole body; the crea­ture is scarce able to stand on its legs, and the roots of its bristles are bloody.

As this disorder proceeds chiefly from their glut­tony and filth, the only way of preventing it is, as was said before, to keep them clean; and the most probable way to remedy it is, to put the diseased hogs into a separate clean stye, and there give them wholesome food; to wash them carefully, and let them have plenty of water to wallow in: antimony, and its preparations, will also be of service to them.