Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1893 — The Original Homes of Sheep. [ARTICLE]

The Original Homes of Sheep.

A British agricultural exchange, discussing the origin and distribution of sheep, Delioving that British domestic sheep were principally derived from the high grounds of Persia, Afghanistan ana India, and that thoy could not exist far inland owing to too dry a climate and the scarcity of salt, savst "Our mountain sheep aro principally derived from Aslan wild ancestors tnerc is ovory reason to believe, but that sheep can do well, when uttonded to away from the seaboard, we have ample proof in Australia. Thoro are oven at this day many species of wild sheep inhabiting tho mountain ranges in tho debtor of Asia, fur retnoved from the sea." Othors are as firmly convinced that tho wild ancestors of long wool shoep' lived in u oold climate, and la low, heavily grassed lands. Among the fossil remains of the sheep found In Europo, palaeontologists doscriba two distinct species, ono of which is named the “Marsh” shoep. Even at the present day the numerous breeds of mountain sheep, nftor so many oonturies of domestication, are entirely different in disposition arid habit from' the longwoolea or low-land sheep. Indeed, the two breeds cannot attain their full development on tho same pasturo.