[... back to menu for this book]
CHAPTER XIV.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE SHEEP AND LAMB.
678. OF ALL WILD or DOMESTICATED
ANIMALS, the sheep is, without exception, the most useful to man as a food,
and the most necessary to his health and comfort; for it not only supplies him
with the lightest and most nutritious of meats, but, in the absence of the cow,
its udder yields him milk, cream, and a sound though inferior cheese; while from
its fat he obtains light, and from its fleece broadcloth, kerseymere, blankets,
gloves, and hose. Its bones when burnt make an animal charcoal--ivory black--to
polish his boots, and when powdered, a manure for the cultivation of his wheat;
the skin, either split or whole, is made into a mat for his carriage, a housing
for his horse, or a lining for his hat, and many other useful purposes besides,
being extensively employed in the manufacture of parchment; and finally, when
oppressed by care and sorrow, the harmonious strains that carry such soothing
contentment to the heart, are elicited from the musical strings, prepared almost
exclusively from the intestines of the sheep.
679. THIS VALUABLE ANIMAL, of which England is
estimated to maintain an average stock of 32,000,000, belongs to the class
already indicated under the ox,--the Mammalia; to the order of Rumenantia,
or cud-chewing animal; to the tribe of Capridae, or horned quadrupeds;
and the genus Ovis, or the "sheep." The sheep may be either
with or without horns; when present, however, they have always this peculiarity,
that they spring from a triangular base, are spiral in form, and lateral, at the
side of the head, in situation. The fleece of the sheep is of two sorts, either
short and harsh, or soft and woolly; the wool always preponderating in an exact
ratio to the care, attention, and amount of domestication bestowed on the
animal. The generic peculiarities of the sheep are the triangular and spiral
form of the horns, always larger in the male when present, but absent in the
most cultivated species; having sinuses at the base of all the toes of the four
feet, with two rudimentary hoofs on the fore legs, two inguinal teats to the
udder, with a short tail in the wild breed, but of varying length in the
domesticated; have no incisor teeth in the upper jaw, but in their place a hard
elastic cushion along the margin of the gum, on which the animal nips and breaks
the herbage on which it feeds; in the lower jaw there are eight incisor teeth
and six molars on each side of both jaws, making in all 32 teeth. The fleece
consists of two coats, one to keep the animal warm, the other to carry off the
water without wetting the skin. The first is of wool, the weight and fineness of
which depend on the quality of the pasture and the care bestowed on the flock;
the other of hair, that pierces the wool and overlaps it, and is in excess in
exact proportion to the badness of the keep and inattention with which the
animal is treated.
680. THE GREAT OBJECT OF THE GRAZIER is to
procure an animal that will yield the greatest pecuniary return in the shortest
time; or, in other words, soonest convert grass and turnips into good mutton and
fine fleece. All sheep will not do this alike; some, like men, are so restless
and irritable, that no system of feeding, however good, will develop their
frames or make them fat. The system adopted by the breeder to obtain a valuable
animal for the butcher, is to enlarge the capacity and functions of the
digestive organs, and reduce those of the head and chest, or the mental and
respiratory organs. In the first place, the mind should be tranquillized, and
those spaces that can never produce animal fibre curtailed, and greater room
afforded, as in the abdomen, for those that can. And as nothing militates
against the fattening process so much as restlessness, the chief wish of the
grazier is to find a dull, indolent sheep, one who, instead of frisking himself,
leaping his wattles, or even condescending to notice the butting gambols of his
silly companions, silently fills his paunch with pasture, and then seeking a
shady nook, indolently and luxuriously chows his cud with closed eyes and
blissful satisfaction, only rising when his delicious repast is ended, to
proceed silently and without emotion to repeat the pleasing process of laying in
more provender, and then returning to his dreamy siesta to renew the delightful
task of rumination. Such animals are said to have a lymphatic
temperament, and are of so kindly a nature, that on good pasturage they may be
said to grow daily. The Leicestershire breed is the best example of this
lymphatic and contented animal, and the active Orkney, who is half goat in his
habits, of the restless and unprofitable. The rich pasture of our midland
counties would take years in making the wiry Orkney fat and profitable, while
one day's fatigue in climbing rocks after a coarse and scanty herbage would
probably cause the actual death of the pampered and short-winded Leicester.
681. THE MORE REMOVED FROM THE NATURE of the
animal is the food on which it lives, the more difficult is the process of
assimilation, and the more complex the chain of digestive organs; for it must be
evident to all, that the same apparatus that converts flesh into flesh,
is hardly calculated to transmute grass into flesh. As the process of
digestion in carnivorous animals is extremely simple, these organs are found to
be remarkably short, seldom exceeding the length of the animal's body; while,
where digestion is more difficult, from the unassimilating nature of the
aliment, as in the ruminant order, the alimentary canal, as is the case with the
sheep, is twenty-seven times the length of the body. The digestive organ
in all ruminant animals consists of four stomachs, or, rather, a
capacious pouch, divided by doorways and valves into four compartments, called,
in their order of position, the Paunch, the Reticulum, the Omasum, and the
Abomasum. When the sheep nibbles the grass, and is ignorantly supposed to be
eating, he is, in fact, only preparing the raw material of his meal, in reality
only mowing the pasture, which, as he collects, is swallowed instantly, passing
into the first receptacle, the paunch, where it is surrounded by a
quantity of warm saliva, in which the herbage undergoes a process of maceration
or softening, till the animal having filled this compartment, the contents pass
through a valve into the second or smaller bag,--the reticulum, where,
having again filled the paunch with a reserve, the sheep lies down and commences
that singular process of chewing the cud, or, in other words, masticating the
food he has collected. By the operation of a certain set of muscles, a small
quantity of this softened food from the reticulum, or second bag, is
passed into the mouth, which it now becomes the pleasure of the sheep to grind
under his molar teeth into a soft smooth pulp, the operation being further
assisted by a flow of saliva, answering the double purpose of increasing the
flavour of the aliment and promoting the solvency of the mass. Having completely
comminuted and blended this mouthful, it is swallowed a second time; but instead
of returning to the paunch or reticulum, it passes through another valve into a
side cavity,--the omasum, where, after a maceration in more saliva for
some hours, it glides by the same contrivance into the fourth pouch,--the abomasum,
an apartment in all respects analogous to the ordinary stomach of animals, and
where the process of digestion, begun and carried on in the previous three, is
here consummated, and the nutrient principle, by means of the bile, eliminated
from the digested aliment. Such is the process of digestion in sheep and oxen.
682. NO OTHER ANIMAL, even of the same order,
possesses in so remarkable a degree the power of converting pasture into flesh
as the Leicestershire sheep; the South Down and Cheviot, the two next breeds in
quality, are, in consequence of the greater vivacity of the animal's nature, not
equal to it in that respect, though in both the brain and chest are kept
subservient to the greater capacity of the organs of digestion. Besides the
advantage of increased bulk and finer fleeces, the breeder seeks to obtain an
augmented deposit of tissue in those parts of the carcase most esteemed as food,
or, what are called in the trade "prime joints;" and so far has this
been effected, that the comparative weight of the hind quarters over the fore
has become a test of quality in the breed, the butchers in some markets charging
twopence a pound more for that portion of the sheep. Indeed, so superior are the
hind quarters of mutton now regarded, that very many of the West-end butchers
never deal in any other part of the sheep.
683. THE DIFFERENCE IN THE QUALITY OF THE FLESH
in various breeds is a well-established fact, not alone in flavour, but also in
tenderness; and that the nature of the pasture on which the sheep is fed
influences the flavour of the meat, is equally certain, and shown in the
estimation in which those flocks are held which have grazed on the thymy heath
of Bamstead in Sussex. It is also a well-established truth, that the larger
the frame of the animal, the coarser is the meat, and that small bones
are both guarantees for the fineness of the breed and the delicacy of the flesh.
The sex too has much to do in determining the quality of the meat; in the males,
the lean is closer in fibre, deeper in colour, harder in texture, less juicy,
and freer from fat, than in the female, and is consequently tougher and more
difficult of digestion; but probably age, and the character of the pasturage on
which they are reared, has, more than any other cause, an influence on the
quality and tenderness of the meat.
684. THE NUMEROUS VARIETIES of sheep inhabiting
the different regions of the earth have been reduced by Cuvier to three, or at
most four, species: the Ovis Amman, or the Argali, the presumed parent
stock of all the rest; the Ovis Tragelaphus, the bearded sheep of Africa;
the Ovis Musmon, the Musmon of Southern Europe; and the Ovis Montana,
the Mouflon of America; though it is believed by many naturalists that this last
is so nearly identical with the Indian Argali as to be undeserving a separate
place. It is still a controversy to which of these three we are indebted for the
many breeds of modern domestication; the Argali, however, by general belief, has
been considered as the most probable progenitor of the present varieties.
685. THE EFFECTS PRODUCED BY CHANGE OF CLIMATE,
accident, and other causes, must have been great to accomplish so complete a
physical alteration as the primitive Argali must have undergone before the
Musmon, or Mouflon of Corsica, the immediate progenitor of all our
European breeds, assumed his present appearance. The Argali is about a fifth
larger in size than the ordinary English sheep, and being a native of a tropical
clime, his fleece is of hair instead of wool, and of a warm reddish brown,
approaching to yellow; a thick mane of darker hair, about seven inches long,
commences from two long tufts at the angle of the jaws, and, running under
the throat and neck, descends down the chest, dividing, at the fore fork, into
two parts, one running down the front of each leg, as low as the shank. The
horns, unlike the character of the order generally, have a quadrangular base,
and, sweeping inwards, terminate in a sharp point. The tail, about seven inches
long, ends in a tuft of stiff hairs. From this remarkable muffler-looking beard,
the French have given the species the name of Mouflon à manchettes. From
the primitive stock eleven varieties have been reared in this country, of
the domesticated sheep, each supposed by their advocates to possess some one or
more special qualities. These eleven, embracing the Shetland or Orkney; the Dun-woolled;
Black-faced, or heath-bred; the Moorland, or Devonshire; the Cheviot; the
Horned, of Norfolk the Ryeland; South-Down; the Merino; the Old Leicester, and
the Teeswater, or New Leicester, have of late years been epitomized; and, for
all useful and practical purposes, reduced to the following four orders:--
686. THE SOUTH-DOWN, the LEICESTER, the BLACK-FACED,
and the CHEVIOT.
687. SOUTH-DOWNS.--It appears, as far as our
investigation can trace the fact, that from the very earliest epoch of
agricultural history in England, the breezy range of light chalky hills running
through the south-west and south of Sussex and Hampshire, and known as the
South-Downs, has been famous for a superior race of sheep; and we find the
Romans early established mills and a cloth-factory at Winchester, where they may
be said to terminate, which rose to such estimation, from the fineness of the
wool and texture of the cloth, that the produce was kept as only worthy to
clothe emperors. From this, it may be inferred that sheep have always been
indigenous to this hilly tract. Though boasting so remote a reputation, it is
comparatively within late years that the improvement and present state of
perfection of this breed has been effected, the South-Down new ranking, for
symmetry of shape, constitution, and early maturity, with any stock in the
kingdom. The South-Down has no horns, is covered with a fine wool from two to
three inches long, has a small head, and legs and face of a grey colour. It is,
however, considered deficient in depth and breadth of chest. A marked
peculiarity of this breed is that its hind quarters stand higher than the fore,
the quarters weighing from fifteen to eighteen pounds.
688. THE LEICESTER.--It was not till the year
1755 that Mr. Robert Bakewell directed his attention to the improvement of his
stock of sheep, and ultimately effected that change in the character of his
flock which has brought the breed to hold so prominent a place. The Leicester is
regarded as the largest example of the improved breeds, very productive, and
yielding a good fleece. He has a small head, covered with short white hairs, a
clean muzzle, an open countenance, full eye, long thin ear, tapering neck,
well-arched ribs, and straight back. The meat is indifferent, its flavour not
being so good as that of the South-Down, and there is a very large proportion of
fat. Average weight of carcase from 90 to 100 lbs.
689. BLACK-FACED, on HEATH-BRED SHEEP.--This is
the most hardy of all our native breeds, and originally came from Ettrick
Forest. The face and legs are black, or sometimes mottled, the horns spiral, and
on the top of the forehead it has a small round tuft of lighter-coloured wool
than on the face; has the muzzle and lips of the same light hue, and what
shepherds call a mealy mouth; the eye is full of vivacity and fire, and well
open; the body long, round, and firm, and the limbs robust. The wool is thin,
coarse, and light. Weight of the quarter, from 10 to 16 lbs.
690. THE CHEVIOT.--From the earliest traditions,
these hills in the North, like the chalk-ridges in the South, have possessed a
race of large-carcased sheep, producing a valuable fleece. To these physical
advantages, they added a sound constitution, remarkable vigour, and capability
to endure great privation. Both sexes are destitute of horns, face white, legs
long and clean, carries the head erect, has the throat and neck well covered,
the cars long and open, and the face animated. The Cheviot is a small-boned
sheep, and well covered with wool to the hough; the only defect in this breed,
is in a want of depth in the chest. Weight of the quarter, from 12 to 18 lbs.
691. THOUGH THE ROMNEY MARSHES, that wide tract
of morass and lowland moor extending from the Weald (or ancient forest) of Kent
into Sussex, has rather been regarded as a general feeding-ground for any kind
of sheep to be pastured on, it has yet, from the earliest date, been famous for
a breed of animals almost peculiar to the locality, and especially for size,
length, thickness, and quantity of wool, and what is called thickness of
stocking; and on this account for ages held pre-eminence over every other breed
in the kingdom. So satisfied were the Kentish men with the superiority of their
sheep, that they long resisted any crossing in the breed. At length, however,
this was effected, and from the Old Romney and New Leicester a stock was
produced that proved, in an eminent degree, the advantage of the cross; and
though the breed was actually smaller than the original, it was found that the
new stock did not consume so much food, the stocking was increased, they were
ready for the market a year sooner; that the fat formed more on the
exterior of the carcase, where it was of most advantage to the grazier, rather
than as formerly in the interior, where it went to the butcher as offal; and
though the wool was shorter and lighter, it was of a better colour, finer, and
possessed of superior felting properties.
692. THE ROMNEY MARSH BREED is a large animal,
deep, close, and compact, with white face and legs, and yields a heavy fleece of
a good staple quality. The general structure is, however, considered defective,
the chest being narrow and the extremities coarse; nevertheless its tendency to
fatten, and its early maturity, are universally admitted. The Romney Marsh,
therefore, though not ranking as a first class in respect of perfection and
symmetry of breed, is a highly useful, profitable, and generally advantageous
variety of the English domestic sheep.
693. DIFFERENT NAMES HAVE BEEN GIVEN to sheep by
their breeders, according to their age and sex. The male is called a ram, or tup;
after weaning, he is said to be a hog, or hogget, or a lamb-hog, tup-hog, or teg;
later he is a wether, or wether-hog; after the first shearing, a shearing, or
dinmont; and after each succeeding shearing, a two, three, or four-shear ram,
tup, or wether, according to circumstances. The female is called a ewe, or
gimmer-lamb, till weaned, when she becomes, according to the shepherd's
nomenclature, a gimmer-ewe, hog, or teg; after shearing, a gimmer or
shearing-ewe, or theave; and in future a two, three, or four-shear ewe, or
theave.
694. THE MODE OF SLAUGHTERING SHEEP is perhaps as
humane and expeditious a process as could be adopted to attain the objects
sought: the animal being laid on its side in a sort of concave stool, the
butcher, while pressing the body with his knee, transfixes the throat near the
angle of the jaw, passing his knife between the windpipe and bones of the neck;
thus dividing the jugulars, carotids, and large vessels, the death being very
rapid from such a hemorrhage.
695. ALMOST EVERY LARGE CITY has a particular
manner of cutting up, or, as it is called, dressing the carcase. In London this
process is very simple, and as our butchers have found that much skewering back,
doubling one part over another, or scoring the inner cuticle or fell, tends to
spoil the meat and shorten the time it would otherwise keep, they avoid all such
treatment entirely. The carcase when flayed (which operation is performed while
yet warm), the sheep when hung up and the head removed, presents the profile
shown in our cut; the small numerals indicating the parts or joints into which
one half of the animal is cut. After separating the hind from the fore quarters,
with eleven ribs to the latter, the quarters are usually subdivided in the
manner shown in the sketch, in which the several joins are defined by the
intervening lines and figures. Hind quarter: No. 1, the leg; 2, the
loin--the two, when cut in one piece, being called the saddle. Fore quarter:
No. 3, the shoulder; 4 and 5 the neck; No. 5 being called, for distinction, the
scrag, which is generally afterwards separated from 4, the lower and better
joint; No. 6, the breast. The haunch of mutton, so often served at public
dinners and special entertainments, comprises all the leg and so much of the
loin, short of the ribs or lap, as is indicated on the upper part of the carcase
by a dotted line.
696. THE GENTLE AND TIMID DISPOSITION of the
sheep, and its defenceless condition, must very early have attached it to man
for motives less selfish than either its fleece or its flesh; for it has been
proved beyond a doubt that, obtuse as we generally regard it, it is susceptible
of a high degree of domesticity, obedience, and affection. In many parts of
Europe, where the flocks are guided by the shepherd's voice alone, it is no
unusual thing for a sheep to quit the herd when called by its name, and follow
the keeper like a dog. In the mountains of Scotland, when a flock is invaded by
a savage dog, the rams have been known to form the herd into a circle, and
placing themselves on the outside line, keep the enemy at bay, or charging on
him in a troop, have despatched him with their horns.
697. THE VALUE OF THE SHEEP seems to have been
early understood by Adam in his fallen state; his skin not only affording him
protection for his body, but a covering for his tent; and accordingly, we find
Abel intrusted with this portion of his father's stock; for the Bible tells us
that "Abel was a keeper of sheep." What other animals were
domesticated at that time we can only conjecture, or at what exact period the
flesh of the sheep was first eaten for food by man, is equally, if not
uncertain, open to controversy. For though some authorities maintain the
contrary, it is but natural to suppose that when Abel brought firstlings of his
flock, "and the fat thereof," as a sacrifice, the less dainty
portions, not being oblations, were hardly likely to have been flung away as
refuse. Indeed, without supposing Adam and his descendants to have eaten animal
food, we cannot reconcile the fact of Jubal Cain, Cain's son, and his family,
living in tents, as they are reported to have done, knowing that both their own
garments and the coverings of the tents, were made from the hides and skins of
the animals they bred; for the number of sheep and oxen slain for oblations
only, would not have supplied sufficient material for two such necessary
purposes. The opposite opinion is, that animal food was not eaten till after the
Flood, when the Lord renewed his covenant with Noah. From Scriptural authority
we learn many interesting facts as regards the sheep: the first, that mutton fat
was considered the most delicious portion of any meat, and the tail and adjacent
part the most exquisite morsel in the whole body; consequently, such were
regarded as especially fit for the offer of sacrifice. From this fact we may
reasonably infer that the animal still so often met with in Palestine and Syria,
and known as the Fat-tailed sheep, was in use in the days of the patriarchs,
though probably not then of the size and weight it now attains to; a supposition
that gains greater strength, when it is remembered that the ram Abraham found in
the bush, when he went to offer up Isaac, was a horned animal, being entangled
in the brake by his curved horns; so far proving that it belonged to the tribe
of the Capridae, the fat-tailed sheep appertaining to the same family.
LAMBS.
698. THOUGH THE LAMBING SEASON IN
THIS COUNTRY usually commences in March, under the artificial system, so
much pursued now to please the appetite of luxury, lambs can be procured at all
seasons. When, however, the sheep lambs in mid-winter, or the inclemency of the
weather would endanger the lives of mother and young, if exposed to its
influence, it is customary to rear the lambs within-doors, and under the shelter
of stables or barns, where, foddered on soft hay, and part fed on cow's milk,
the little creatures thrive rapidly: to such it is customary to give the name of
House Lamb, to distinguish it from that reared in the open air, or grass-fed.
The ewe goes five months with her young, about 152 days, or close on 22 weeks.
The weaning season commences on poor lands, about the end of the third month,
but on rich pasture not till the close of the fourth--sometimes longer.
699. FROM THE LARGE PROPORTION OF MOISTURE OR FLUIDS
contained in the tissues of all young animals, the flesh of lamb and veal is
much more prone, in close, damp weather, to become tainted and spoil than the
flesh of the more mature, drier, and closer-textured beef and mutton. Among
epicures, the most delicious sorts of lamb are those of the South-Down breed,
known by their black feet; and of these, those which have been exclusively
suckled on the milk of the parent ewe, are considered the finest. Next to these
in estimation are those fed on the milk of several dams, and last of all, though
the fattest, the grass-fed lamb; this, however, implies an age much greater than
either of the others.
700. LAMB, in the early part of the season,
however reared, is in London, and indeed generally, sold in quarters, divided
with eleven ribs to the forequarter; but, as the season advances, these are
subdivided into two, and the hind-quarter in the same manner; the first
consisting of the shoulder, and the neck and breast; the latter, of the leg and
the loin,--as shown in the cut illustrative of mutton. As lamb, from the juicy
nature of its flesh, is especially liable to spoil in unfavourable weather, it
should be frequently wiped, so as to remove any moisture that may form on it.
701. IN THE PURCHASING OF LAMB FOR THE TABLE,
there are certain signs by which the experienced judgment is able to form an
accurate opinion whether the animal has been lately slaughtered, and whether the
joints possess that condition of fibre indicative of good and wholesome meat.
The first of these doubts may be solved satisfactorily by the bright and dilated
appearance of the eye; the quality of the fore-quarter can always be guaranteed
by the blue or healthy ruddiness of the jugular, or vein of the neck; while the
rigidity of the knuckle, and the firm, compact feel of the kidney, will answer
in an equally positive manner for the integrity of the hind-quarter.
702. MODE OF CUTTING UP A SIDE OF LAMB IN LONDON.--1,
1. Ribs; 2. Breast; 3. Shoulder; 4. Loin; 5. Leg; 1,2,3. Fore Quarter.