Part 8

89. The hair of the ANGORA GOAT is long, soft, and silky, and is one of the most beautiful substances with which we are acquainted, for the manufacture of shawls, and other fine stuffs; and these, which in England have the name of _camblets_, are sometimes sold at very high prices. It is supposed that, with attention, Angora goats might be successfully and advantageously bred in Great Britain; particularly in those parts where the country is mountainous, and where the climate and food might not be far different from those of their native country of Asia Minor.

90. _The COMMON SHEEP_ (Ovis aries, Fig. 14) _has, in general, hollow, compressed, transversely wrinkled, and somewhat crescent-shaped horns; but some of the varieties are entirely destitute of these weapons._

_The male is called_ ram, _the female_ ewe, _and the young one has the name of_ lamb.

_Sheep are found in nearly every country of the world._

The bodies of these animals, in temperate and cold climates, are clad with a curled and closely matted kind of hair, which has the peculiar appellation of _wool_. The distinguishing characteristic of wool is that, when even the coarsest sort is manufactured into cloth, it thickens in the milling, and forms a close texture, owing to the peculiar roughness of its surface, and to its curly form; whereas the finest possible hair, under the same operation, will neither thicken nor form any texture whatever. It is by the manufacture of wool into various kinds of clothing that many thousands of people, in different countries of Europe, are entirely supported and fed. In temperate countries the fleeces of sheep are shorn or cut off once, and in others, where the climate is warmer, twice in the year, the animals being previously well washed to cleanse the wool. The Shetland sheep, and some others, have the fleece pulled, and not cut off.

When wool is intended to be manufactured into cloth of mixed colours, it is dyed in the fleece before it is spun. When intended for tapestry, it is dyed after it is spun; and when to be wrought into cloth of uniform colour, it is not dyed until the cloth is made.

Much wool is used in the manufacture of hats. For this purpose it goes through a process called _felting_, to unite or mat it into a firm substance. Felt is either made of wool alone, or of a mixture of wool with camel's or other hair.

The _skins_ of sheep, after the processes called tanning and currying, are manufactured into a thin and coarse but useful kind of leather, which is much in request by saddlers, book-binders, and others. These skins, by a different process, are converted into _parchment_, which is used for writing deeds upon. Lambs' skins are made into gloves.

Every part of the sheep is advantageous to mankind. The flesh, under the denomination of _mutton_, supplies us with a wholesome and palatable food, which is in greatest estimation when the animals are at least three, and not more than six years old. That of lambs, in the spring of the year, is also in considerable demand. _House lamb_ is so denominated from the animals being fattened within doors; but this kind of food is neither so wholesome nor so nutritive as the meat in a natural state. _Suet_ is a solid kind of fat which is found in various parts of the bodies (particularly about the kidneys and intestines) of sheep, oxen, and other ruminating animals. It differs materially from fat or grease, as the latter remains soft, and this hardens in cooling. Suet is used for culinary and other purposes, and very extensively in the making of candles. The _milk_ of sheep is rich and nourishing, and in great esteem among the peasantry of all countries where these animals are bred. It produces an abundance of butter, but this is so unpalatable as seldom to be eaten. Ewes' milk yields a large proportion of strong and tough cheese. Of the entrails of sheep are made the strings generally called _cat-gut_, which are used for different kinds of musical instruments, and for the coverings of whips. Handles of knives, and several other useful articles, are made of the _bones_ of sheep; the refuse parts of which are coarsely ground to serve as manure. A very important advantage is in another respect derived from these animals, by folding them upon land on which corn is afterwards to be grown.

There are, in Great Britain, many different breeds of sheep, some of which are very valuable.

91. Those called LEICESTER SHEEP are chiefly bred in that and the adjacent counties, and are much esteemed for their property of readily fattening. Their _mutton_, when in perfection, has a fineness of grain and a superiority of flavour beyond that of almost every other kind of sheep. These animals are capable of being rendered so fat, that, in some instances they have measured more than six inches deep in solid fat on the ribs. But, in this case, the mutton is scarcely eatable.

92. A coarse _wool_, but so long as to measure from ten to more than eighteen inches, is obtained from the breed called LINCOLNSHIRE SHEEP.

93. For united excellence of _wool_ and _mutton_ the SOUTH DOWN SHEEP are in great demand. This breed, which particularly abounds on the dry and chalky downs of Sussex and other southern parts of England, has of late been dispersed over nearly the whole kingdom. The animals are distinguishable by their grey or speckled face and legs, and being destitute of horns.

94. From the RYELAND and or HEREFORDSHIRE SHEEP is obtained a peculiarly short, soft, and fine _wool_, which, if the filaments were of equal thickness and quality throughout, would be as valuable as the best wool that we import from Spain. The _mutton_ of these sheep is also fine-grained and of excellent flavour.

95. A breed of sheep, which is well known in Northumberland by the name of CHEVIOT SHEEP, produces very admirable _mutton_ and _wool_ of fine texture. Of the _milk_ of these sheep great quantities of cheese are made, which is sold at a low price. This, when three or four days old, becomes very pungent, and is in considerable esteem for the table.

96. The SHETLAND islands produce a kind of sheep so small as seldom to exceed the weight of thirty or forty pounds. Their _wool_ is sufficiently soft to be adapted even to clothing of the most delicate texture. A pair of stockings that were made of it were so fine as to be sold for six guineas. The _skins_ of these sheep with the fleece on are capable of being converted into a fur of great value; and, when the wool is stripped from them, they are, as leather, peculiarly estimable for aprons, and are purchased by mechanics for this purpose at double the price of other skins of the same size.

97. It is to the breed called DORSETSHIRE SHEEP that the London markets are principally indebted for the _house-lamb_, which, at an early part of the season, bears so high a price. After the lambs are produced they are confined in small dark places, and never see the light, except when brought out to be fed by the ewes; and, at the times when thus brought out, their cabins are cleansed, and littered with fresh straw, as a great part of their value depends upon the cleanliness in which they are kept.

98. The _mutton_ of the HEATH SHEEP, a breed which is found in most of the north-western parts of England, and even as far as the western Highlands of Scotland, is accounted peculiarly excellent; and immense numbers of these sheep are annually sold at the north country fairs. The animals themselves are hardy and active, and well adapted to subsist in healthy and mountainous districts.

99. _MERINO SHEEP are a celebrated Spanish breed of sheep, with small horns, white face and legs, small bones, a loose skin hanging from the neck, the wool fine, the external part of the fleece dark brown in consequence of the dust adhering to it, the interior delicate white, and the skin of rosy hue._

The celebrity of this breed, for the production of a remarkably fine _wool_, has been such, that all the highest priced cloths manufactured in this country, until of late years, were made of Spanish wool. In the year 1787 some of these sheep were first introduced into England. And, although it was formerly a prevailing opinion that the excellence of their fleece depended, in a great degree, upon the temperature of the Spanish climate, it has been satisfactorily ascertained that the fineness of Spanish wool is not in the slightest degree impaired by breeding the sheep in this country. Even in Hungary sheep of this kind have, for many years, been so successfully reared, that much of the fine wool used in our clothing countries has been imported from thence. The average weight of the Merino fleece is about three pounds and half. It has lately been a great object of attention in England to improve our own breeds, particularly the Ryeland, by a mixture with merinos, and this cross breed is stated to retain all the principal characteristics of the Spanish race. The _mutton_ of these sheep, for size and flavour, is much in demand, and sells in the market at a higher price than that of most other kinds of sheep.

100. _The BROAD-TAILED SHEEP are a very remarkable kind of sheep, distinguished by their tails being extremely large, and so long as sometimes to drag upon the ground._

_They are found in several parts of Persia, Syria, Egypt, and other eastern countries._

The _tails_ of these animals are almost wholly composed of a substance resembling marrow, and sometimes they are equal in weight to one-third of the whole carcase. To prevent them from chafing against the ground, the shepherds not unfrequently put boards, with small wheels, under them, attached to the hinder parts of the animal. The substance of these tails is in great demand, instead of butter, for culinary purposes; and it forms an ingredient in several kinds of dishes. The _fleece_ of the broad-tailed sheep is peculiarly long and fine, and, in Thibet, is manufactured into shawls and other articles of peculiarly delicate texture, which form a considerable source of wealth to the inhabitants.

Of these, and of another kind of sheep called _Tartarian_ or _fat-rumped sheep_, the hinder parts of which are so excessively fat as entirely to enclose the tail, there are great numbers bred in Tartary. It is even stated that, on an average, 150,000 of them are annually sold at the fairs of Orenburgh, and a much greater number in some other places.

101. _The COMMON OX_ (Bos taurus domesticus, Fig. 29) _is characterised by having rounded horns which curve outward, and a loose skin or dewlap beneath the throat._

_The male is called_ bull, _the female_ cow, _and the young one_ calf.

_This animal, in a wild state, is the_ bison (Fig. 15) _which is found in the marshy forests of Poland and Lithuania._

It is almost impossible to enumerate all the benefits that mankind derive from these admirable animals. In many countries nearly the whole labour of agriculture is performed by oxen, and, after this service is over, they are fatted and slaughtered for food. It is well known in what estimation they were formerly held in Egypt; they furnished even deities to the superstitious inhabitants of that country. From their supplying the Gentoos with milk, butter, and cheese, their favourite food, those people bear for them a veneration so great that nothing on earth would induce them to slay one of them.

In nearly all eastern countries oxen are employed in treading out corn. By the Caffres of the Cape of Good Hope they are used as beasts of draught and burden. When Mr. Barrow and his suite went into the country of the Caffres, the king, who was at a distance from his usual residence, was sent to; and he is stated to have arrived riding upon an ox full gallop, attended by five or six of his people.

To the _milk_ of the cow we are indebted for several important articles of human subsistence. It is adapted to every state and age of the body, but particularly to the feeding of infants after they have been weaned. Skimmed milk, or that which remains after the cream has been taken off, is employed, in considerable quantity, by wine and spirit merchants, for clarifying or fining down turbid white wine, arrack, and weak spirits.

Nearly all the _cheese_ that is consumed in the British islands is made of cow's milk. For this purpose the milk is curdled by mixture with a substance called rennet, which is prepared from the inner membrane of a calf's stomach; and the curd, thus formed, after being cleared of the whey or watery part contained in the milk, is collected together, pressed, and dried for use.

The richest of all the English kinds of cheese is that called _Stilton cheese_. This, however, is not, as its name would import, made in the town of Stilton, but in various parts of Huntingdonshire, and in Leicestershire, Rutland, and Northamptonshire. Stilton cheese is indebted, for its excellence, both to the rich pastures on which the cows are fed, and to the peculiar process by which it is made. It is not sufficiently mellowed for use until two years old, and is not in a state to be eaten till it is decayed, blue, and moist. To hasten the ripening of Stilton cheeses, it is not unusual to place them in buckets, and to cover these with horse-dung. _Cheshire_ is famous for its cheese, which is generally much salter and more smart upon the palate than any other English kind. In _Wiltshire_ and _Gloucestershire_ much cheese of rich and excellent quality is made.

The neighbourhood of _Chedder_, in the county of Somerset, produces a very admirable kind, which is little inferior in taste to Parmesan, and is supposed to owe its peculiar quality to the cows feeding in rich pastures, and particularly on the flote fescue grass (_Festuca fluitans_), with which many of those pastures abound. _Cottenham cheese_ is a soft white cheese, for which we are chiefly indebted to a small village of that name situated a few miles from Cambridge. In the neighbourhood of _Bath_ and _York_, and also in _Lincolnshire_, a rich and excellent kind of cream cheese is made. In Scotland a species of cheese is produced which has long been known and celebrated under the name of _Dunlop cheese_, from a parish of that name in Ayrshire, in the neighbourhood of which it is principally made.

Of foreign kinds of cheese the most celebrated is _Parmesan_. This is made of ewes' milk, or of a mixture of ewes' or goats' milk with that of the cow. We receive it from various parts of Italy, and also from other countries, although the name would import it to be made exclusively in the neighbourhood of Parma. In the district of _Gruyere_, a small town in the canton of Friburg in Switzerland, a well-known kind of cheese of large size is made, which goes by that name. _Gouda_ cheese is famous in Holland. The common _Dutch cheeses_ are of globular shape, and each three or four pounds in weight. They are prepared in the same manner as Cheshire cheese, with the exception that, instead of rennet, the Dutch use spirit of vitriol (sulphuric acid). Hence this kind of cheese has a sharp and saline taste, which is said to exempt it from the depredations of mites. _Green Swiss cheese_ has a strong and peculiar flavour derived from the fragrant powder of melliot (_Trifolium melilotus officinalis_). This cheese is, however, to many persons, very disagreeable.

When milk has been suffered to stand a few hours, a substance called _cream_ rises to the surface. This is skimmed off for several uses, but principally for the purpose of being made into _butter_, which is done by beating it in a vessel called a churn. In Cheshire it is customary to churn the butter from the whole milk, without its being skimmed, but this is contrary to the practice in most other parts of England. The consumption of butter is so great that not less than 50,000 tons' weight of it are stated to be annually used in London only. That, which is principally in esteem there is produced in Essex, and known by the name of _Epping butter_.

To make butter keep for a greater length of time than it would otherwise do, it is salted and packed in small tubs or barrels; and, in this state, it is a very considerable article of commerce. In the salting and packing of butter many abuses are practised, to increase its bulk and weight, against which there is an express act of parliament. Lumps of good butter are sometimes laid, for a little depth, at the top of a barrel, with butter of inferior quality beneath it. Sometimes the butter is packed hollow; and sometimes the exterior part of the butter is good whilst the whole interior is bad.

After the butter has been separated there remains in the churn a kind of whey which is called _butter-milk_, and the quality of which greatly depends on the manner of churning. Before it turns sour, butter-milk is a favourite beverage in the families of some farmers. It is also occasionally used as a wash for the face, being considered a remedy against freckles; but it is principally applied for the feeding of pigs.

The flesh of oxen constitutes the kind of food which we call _beef_. This is usually eaten in a recent state, but is sometimes, particularly in the northern parts of England, in Ireland, and Holland, salted in the manner of bacon, and in this state, it is a considerable article of trade. It affords a strong and invigorating nutriment, superior to any that we are acquainted with. _Beef-tea_ is a preparation commonly made for invalids and convalescents, and consists of an infusion of the lean parts of beef in boiling water. _Veal_, or the flesh of calves, is an highly esteemed and delicate food.

The _skins_ of cattle, after they have undergone the processes of tanning and currying, are employed for making harness, saddles, bridles, the soles of shoes, and for various other purposes. _Calves' skins_ are used for the upper leathers of shoes, and by saddlers, book-binders, &c. The skins of sucking calves are manufactured into _vellum_, a thin substance which is employed by book-binders; also for writing and drawing upon, and for other uses. From the parings and other offals of the hides of oxen, and the parings and scraps of the legs, by boiling them in water to the consistence of a jelly, straining them through a wicket basket, suffering the impurities to subside, and then boiling them a second time, is made _glue_. This, in a state of jelly, is poured into flat frames or moulds; when congealed, it is cut into square pieces, and afterwards dried, by being suspended in a coarse kind of netting.

The leg-_bones_ of oxen, after having been whitened by boiling them with quick-lime, are used in the manufacture of the handles of knives and forks, and for innumerable other purposes. This substance, when good, is nearly allied to ivory: but is easily distinguished by its porous nature, its coarse grain, and its wanting the beautiful white veins which are so conspicuous in ivory. Bones, after having been burnt or calcined, are used by the refiners of gold and silver.

The _horns_ of oxen are used for many of the same purposes as bone. After having been softened by heat they are capable of being moulded into almost any shape. They are sometimes stained in such manner as to imitate tortoise-shell, and they are then used for the making of combs. By a peculiar process they are rendered semi-transparent, and, when formed into thin plates, are employed instead of glass for lanthorns. Horn was the first transparent substance that was ever used for lanthorns and windows.

_Tallow_ is the fat of sheep and oxen, cleared of its fibrous parts by straining and other management. It is further improved and clarified by the addition of alum, and, in this state, is used for the making of candles. Tallow is also a chief ingredient in soap. From the feet of oxen is procured a kind of oil, called _Neats'-foot oil_, which is of great use in the preparing and softening of leather. The _blood_ is employed in the clarifying of sugar, and great quantities of it, during the late war, were exported from London to Sweden for this purpose. The skins of the intestines are used for beating gold leaf betwixt; and these, under the name of _gold-beaters' skin_, are afterwards considered efficacious as an adhesive plaster for healing small wounds. Of gold-beaters' skin the French manufacturers of toys sometimes construct little balloons for the amusement of children. A few years ago there was, in London, an exhibition of animals formed of this substance and inflated with air.

102. British cattle are considered preferable to the cattle of any other country in the world. Those called DEVONSHIRE CATTLE, which are distinguished by their mahogany colour and light yellow horns, are adjudged to be the best of any. They are much used in agricultural labours, being peculiarly fitted for draught both by their hardiness and activity. The _beef_ of this breed is peculiarly excellent. Their _skins_ are thin, but improve much in tanning; and the _tallow_ is of peculiarly good quality.

103. In the northern parts of England there is a very useful kind, called HOLDERNESS or DUTCH CATTLE. These, in size and weight exceed all the British cattle. The cows have great celebrity for yielding a very extraordinary quantity of _milk_; instances have been mentioned of their yielding thirty-six quarts in a day. This stock is well known in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, being that which is generally kept by the London cow-keepers. The animal exhibited in London in the beginning of 1802, under the name of the "wonderful ox," was a variety produced from this breed, and weighed more than 200 stone.

104. The LANCASHIRE or LONG-HORNED CATTLE, are much esteemed for the dairy. The cows yield from sixteen to twenty-four quarts of _milk_ per day; and, on an average, about 300 weight of cheese per annum. They are hardy animals, readily become fat, and produce remarkably well-flavoured _beef_. But they are chiefly celebrated for the thickness and substance of their hides, which are very valuable, and sell at high prices. In many instances the _hides_ have been known to produce a greater price per pound than the beef.

105. ALDERNEY CATTLE are a favourite breed, that have long been known and esteemed, in the southern counties of England, for their _milk_, which is richer than that of any other breed. These animals are of small size, the cows seldom exceeding the height of four feet; yet they are known to produce so much milk as to yield from 200 to more than 300 pounds' weight of butter per annum. In the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, and Alderney, where these cattle are chiefly bred, they are sometimes employed in ploughing; but their greatest use is in carting, and, in this respect, they are found to answer peculiarly well in bad roads and hilly countries. Their _beef_ is generally yellow or very high coloured; but it is peculiarly fine in the grain, and of excellent flavour.

106. Scotland is famous for a small kind of black cattle, with fine white upright horns tipped with black, called HIGHLAND STOTS, or KYLOE CATTLE. Having great celebrity for the fineness and sweetness of their _beef_, as well as the facility with which they are fattened, these cattle are in such esteem as to be driven into the southern counties of England, and occasionally to supply even the London markets. The cows, in proportion to their size, yield a great quantity of rich milk.

107. _The YAK, or GRUNTING OX_ (Bos grunniens), _is an animal of large size, with round, upright, and slender horns, a lump on the shoulders, long and pendant hair, white on the back and tail; and the tail somewhat resembling that of a horse._

_In a wild state this animal is an inhabitant of the mountains of Thibet._