The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-02-23
SHEEP PLAY AN IMPORTANT PART
 IN LIFE OF MAN
One of Earliest Animals Subject to Control of
 Humans.

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 With the exception of the dog there l is no one of the brute creation which 1 exhibits the diversity of size, color, l form, covering and general appear l anee which characterizes the sheep; 1 and none which occupies a wider | range of climate or sttbsists on a I greater variety of food.
 In every latitude between the equa- tor and the arctic he ranges over the sterile mountains and through the valleys. He feeds on almost every species of edible forage, the culti- vated grasses, clovers, cereals and roots; he broWSes on aromatic and bitter herbs; he crops the leaves and barks from the stunted forest shrubs and the Pungent resinous evergreens In some parts of Norway and Sweden when other resources fail, he subsists on fish or flesh during the long and vigorous winters, and, if reduced to necessity, he eats his own wool.
 He is dimminutive like the Ork- ney or massive like the Teeswater. He is many-horned; he has two large 1or small, spiral horns, like the me rino; he is po1led or hornless, like the mutton-sheep. He has a long tail, like our own breeds; a broad tail, like many of the eastern; or a mere button of a tail, like the fat-rumps, this discerndbIe only by the touch.
 His coat is sometimes long and coarse, like the Lincolnshire; short and hairy, like those of Madagascar; soft and furry, like tue Angola; or fine and spiral. like the silken Saxon. His color, either pure or fancifully, mixed, varies from the white or black n of brown, dun, buff, blue and gray, like the spotted f1oclzs of the Cape of Good Hope and other parts of Africa Several of the breeds of sheep are marked with such peculiarities as to be regarded by some eminent natu- ralSts as forming so many distinct species.
 The general opinion, however, is that they all belong to one species and that the diversitieS of form, color | and size which we find among them l are the result of breeding, climate | and other circumstances. As to the original stock of the sheep, some have supposed it to have been the mouflon of Europe; others the ar gah; and others still, with much i plausibility, maintain that the sheep | is the result of a mixture of several | allied species; not, however, inc1ud- 1 ing any of the wild races now known
 But, be this as it may, it is certain ] the sheep was one of the earliest ami
 n1ats subjected to the sway of man; 1 it is the very first of which we have
 any historical notice.
 Abel was a keeper of sheep. Abra- ham and his descendants, as well as
 most of the ancient patriarchs, were i shepherds. Job had 14,OQO sheep. |
 is said of Rachel, the favored moth. CT of the Jewish race: '"She came i with her fathers sheep, for she kep them.''
 The seven daughters of the prfes
 of Midian came and drew water fo1
 their fathers hecks. Moses, tht
 statesman and fawgiver, who wa
 learned in all the wisdom of tn
 Egyptians, kept the flocks of Jethrc his ather-4n-law.
 It was the shepherds, whil
 'tabiding In the field, keeping watc,
 over their nocks by night" that tn
 birth of the Saviour was announced
 The root of the Hebrew name fo
 sheep signifed fr91itfulness, a:bund
 ance, p1enty; as indicating in tn
 blessings they were destined to con l fer on the human race.
 1 With the sacred writers, they wer
 chosen symbols of purity and tn
 gentler virtues; they were the victim
 of propitiary sacrifices; and, final1!
 they became the type of redempdo
 to fallen man. These may not b
 considered, accidental aIlusions in
 book whose every type is full ( ' design
 Nor has the sheep been less tn subject and attention with othe
 writers. Among these Homer an
 Hesiod, Virgil and Theocritus intro E duced them with evident delight
 their pastoral themes; while the l heroes and demigods, Hercuiis an :. Ulysses, Aenca and Nuna, careful : l perpetuated them throughout the o domains!
 f The sheep is, indeed, absolute n without resource and without d.
 fense. The ram has but feeble arm s his courage is nothing but a petl # lance; useless to himself, incol V venient to others.
 The wether-sh are still mo, t timorous than ewes; it is through fe; : that they gather so often in troop n the smallest noise to which they a
 unaccustomed is sufficient to nal " them fly and get close together. Tn - fear is attended with the greate 1t stupidity; for they know not ho $ to fly danger; nor do they even see e to feel the inconvenience of the nsi situation; they must have a chief WI > is instructed to walk first, and who it the will follow, step by step. = This chief will remain by the re
 of the flock, without motion, in u h i same place, if he be not driven fro ,- it by the shepherd, or the dog whi' n guards them, who, in fact watch l. for their safety, defends directs, al g. separates them, assemblies them t
 gether, and communicates to the h motives not their own.
 10 But this animal, so timorous in it self, so wanting in sentiment, and i C ferior qualities. is to man the mo