Some Circumstances relative to Merino Sheep. 245 



casioned by this season of feasting is sufficient to devour 

 the whole of the sheep that are draughted from the flock. 

 Mutton in Spain is not a favourite food; in truth, it is not 

 in that country prepared for the palate as it is in this. We 

 have our lamb-fairs, our hog-fairs, our shearling- fairs, our 

 fairs for culls , and our markets for fat sheep 5 where the 

 mutton, having passed through these different stages of pre- 

 paration, each under the care of men whose soil and whose 

 skill are best suited to the part they have been taught by their 

 interest to assign to themselves, is offered for sale; and if fat 

 and good, it seWom fails to command a price by the pound, 

 from five to ten per cent, dearer than that of beef. In Spain 

 they have no such sheep-fairs calculated to subdivide the 

 education of each animal, by making it pass through many 

 hands, as works of art do in a manufacturing concern; and 

 they have not any fat sheep markets that at all resemble 

 ours. The low state of grazing in Spain ought not therefore 

 to be wondered at, nor the poverty of the Spanish farmers ; 

 they till a soil sufficiently productive by nature, but are rob- 

 bed of the reward due to the occupier, by the want of an 

 advantageous market for their produce, and the benefit of an 

 extensive consumption ; till the manufacturing and mercan- 

 tile parts of a community become opulent enough to pay 

 liberal prices, the agricultural part of it cannot grow rich by 

 selling. 



s 



That the sole purpose of the journeys taken annually by 

 these sheep is to seek food in places where it can be found ; 

 and that these migrations would not be undertaken, if either 

 in the northern or the southern provinces a sufficiency of 

 good pasture could be obtained during the whole year, — ap- 

 pears a matter of certainty. That change of pasture has no 

 effect upon their wool, is clear, from all the experiments 

 tried in other countries, and in Spain also : for Burgoyne 

 tells us, that there are stationary flocks, both in Leon and 

 in Estremadura, which produce wool quite as line as that of 

 the Trashumantcs. 



The sheep lately presented to his majesty are of the Ca- 

 vana of Paular, one of the very finest in point of pile, and 

 esteemed also above all others for the beauty of carcase. In 



Q 3 both 



