THE TEETH OF SHEEP.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1711, 31 March 1913, Page 8

THE TEETH OF SHEEP.

Scores of men who have spent their Jiye,s among sheep and who consider that tlicy know all that is to be learned about (hem cannot, correctly answer a simple question with'regard to how many teeth there are iii a sheep's head (writes "Cooualh6"'in the "Adelaide Observer"). The k'p.t. j? .that they have never concerned themselves regarding any but tho'incisor, teeth, and the,coining and going of these as .indicating ago. On one .occasion a witness, who described himself as a sheep expert, was. considerably nonplussed by having this simple question put to him, and wasrheld-up to ridicule by the crossexamining .'counsel for not being able to givo' a' correct' reply. In common with all other rumin.ints, sheep have eighty .incisors,in'the lower jaw, unopposed by any in the upper, a callous pad being substituted. Between the incisors ami the,.molars; oi\ grinding teeth, there is a space about, an inch and a lialf. There .aro 2-1 ..molars,, six on each sido of each jaw; their crowns are marked with two double .crescents, the convexity of which is ..turned inwards in the upper and outwards in the lower jaw. The lamb, when newly dropped, is devoid of incisor teeth, although the two central teeth are occasionally altovo the gum, even at this early period. When one month old the first yet' of incisor teeth are complete. The tivo front teeth of the under jaw drop out at the end of the first year. Sis months! later the two next to , these are' lost, and so on until the fifth year. The -permanency of these incisor teeth is from this -onward more dependent upon the. nature of the feed and country upon whicli'ithe -animal is depasturing * than upon othir. conditions. In consequence of a. certain irregularity set up by extraneous conditions', whereby a two-vear-old sometimes has the mouth of a yearling, it has (luring the last few years become customary among slock agents and salesmen in many parts of Australia to describe sheep iby'the'ir age—3, i, 5, or (! year-old—instead their teeth—four-tooth, six-tooth, full mouth, or broken mouth. This custom ivas pressed into vogue in some quarters 'by buyers repudiating the advertised age of certain lines of sheep described bv their teeth. ~ . . "

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