THE BEST MEANS FOR THEIR IMPROVEMENT, AND THE TREATMENT OF THEIR DISEASES. WITH A CHAPTER ON WOOL, AND HISTORY OF THE WOOL TRADE. BY AMBROSE BLACKLOCK, SURGEON, DUMFRIES. "Sheep have golden feet, and wherever the print of them appears the soil is GLASGOW: W. R. M PHUN, PUBLISHER, 86, TRONGATE; MDCCCXXXVIII. Third Thousand. 18. ΤΟ SIR C. G. STUART MENTEATH, OF CLOSEBURN, BART., VICE-LIEUTENANT OF DUMFRIES-SHIRE, &c. &c. &c WHOSE INTEGRITY AND URBANITY HAVE ENDEARED HIM TO SOCIETY; AND WHOSE ZEAL FOR THE IMPROVEMENT of the soil, AND FOR THE PROSPERITY OF THE FARMER, HAVE RAISED HIM, BY COMMON CONSENT, TO THE FIRST RANK AS AN AGRICULTURIST, AND AS A LANDLORD; THIS TREATISE ON SHEEP IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BY HIS VERY HUMBLE SERVANT, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. THE truth of the Greek proverb, that "a great book is a great evil," is no where more apparent than in the construction of works on agricultural Those who have attended to the sub concerns. ject well know, that the profitable management of live-stock is by far the most difficult branch of farming, as it is here that improvement is peculiarly tardy; and from this we might infer that authors would endeavour so to arrange and simplify their treatises as to enable every one to obtain the bearings of the study at the smallest possible expense and trouble. Such, however, is not the case. Many would appear to have done their best so to dilute and mystify the little which is known about the matter, that it is nearly impossible for any one, not gifted with more than ordinary power of application, to arrive at any thing like just conclusions. To avoid this error has been my object in the following pages. Such points only as are of real importance have been |