Stock keeping for amateurs : a manual on the varieties, breeding, and management of pigs, sheep, horses, cows, oxen, asses, mules, and goats, and the treatment of their diseases designed for the use of young farmers and amateurs / by W.H. Ablett.

  • Ablett, William H.
Date:
[1881]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Stock keeping for amateurs : a manual on the varieties, breeding, and management of pigs, sheep, horses, cows, oxen, asses, mules, and goats, and the treatment of their diseases designed for the use of young farmers and amateurs / by W.H. Ablett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    extreme cold and hunger, and in winter feed upon seaweed, their instinct communicating to them the first ebbing of the tide, when they may be seen leaving the hills for the sea-shore. It is said they will eat animal food, and have been fed in seasons of scarcity upon dried fish. The fleece is composed of an outer coat of long hair, which is termed “scudda,” which projects from the wool and throws off the wet, being a protection bestowed by nature against the furious storms which rage in these islands at times, from which there is but little protection. At the beginning of the summer the true fleece becomes detached from the skin, and if not collected in time, rises through the hair and falls off. To prevent the loss of the wool, at the proper time the sheep are gathered together, and instead of being shorn, the wool is pulled off by the hand. The wool of each sheep when thus separated from the “ scudda ” weighs from one and a half to two pounds, and forms the well-known Shetland wool, which is used in making the fine shawls known as Sheltand shawls, worn by ladies, and the better known Shetland hose. There is a certain resemblance between the fine Welsh sheep and the Shetland, though each possess distinct features. The former have long tails reaching below the hocks, while the Shet land have a short, broad tail. Welsh sheep are divided into classes, as, the sheep of the higher mountains, the soft-woolled sheep, or sheep of the Welsh hills, and the larger species of the low country. The latter, however, are not really Welsh, being either the smaller kinds of English sheep, or crosses from them upon the old stock. The soft-woolled sheep is the race which furnishes the wool employed in making Welsh flannels, and the mutton used to be sent largely to London, where it formerly fetched a higher price than English mutton, but now their relative positions are reversed. Advice on Buying. From the short sketch we have given of the different breeds and crosses of sheep, sufficient may be gathered to guide the intending purchaser as to the proper selection he should make