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Ai.nCLE XIV. 

 On Wool, Sheep, (^c. 



TO THE SECRETARY. 



Sir, 



THE premium offered by the Bath Agricultural 

 Society, for afcertaining in the Weftern 

 Counties, by any experimental method, the beft 

 breed of Sheep in Carcafe and Wooly feems perfeftly 

 judicious. Both thefe being equally eflential to us: 

 the one as adding to the fupply of food; the other, 

 to the means of induftry obtaining it. The great 

 miftake of either, feparately attended to, I conjec- 

 ture to be, the rearing on an enormous carcafe a 

 very cbarfe, though long wool; which can only be 

 applied to thofe inferior manufadlures, in which the 

 ingenuity is io trivial, that the raw material makes 

 nearly half the value of the fabrick; or the rearing 

 on a fmall carcafe, of moderate meat, a fmall quan- 

 tity of that fine wool, fo effential to the more deli- 

 cate and artful manufactures. Wool of this fort, 

 at the rate of one to two pounds per Iheep, is col- 

 lected herefrom the moft ragged ramblers of our 

 commons; and worth, when culled, half-a-crown a 

 pound. The extent, fhortnefs, and fweetncfs of 

 their feed, throwing the value into the fmall fleece. 

 But to encourage, or even permit, as in fpite of 



our 



