lgo3« Ohfervatio?is en ^heep. 39S' 



not worth more thnn is. 6c1. to is. 8(i. each. Indeed, if tlieir 

 Itatement is adnurted, and if tht ir breed of ilieep (the Cheviot) 

 were to fupplant the Forefl (black-faced, hairy-wooled breed) on 

 ail otir Highland pailurcs, the advantages which would refult to 

 the kingdom, from the increafed value of manufactures in tlieir 

 feveral ramifications, would be immenfe. The truth of thefe 

 Itatements, however, the advocates of the Forelt breed will by no 

 means admit 5 and if their arguments, namely, that the Cheviot 

 iheep are too delicate and indolent for mort of our Highland paf- 

 tures, be well foumled, 1 think the black-faced kind fliouh!, im 

 certain very high and ftormy htuations, be preferred. For it 

 ftrikes me forcibly, that the bed courfe for a farmer to purfue, 

 is not to lay much (trcfs on the finenefs of his wool, or the de- 

 licioufnefs of his mutton, (conceding nothing to the epicure, 

 but what promotes his own intereft), but to keep that kind of 

 fheep, which \^\\\^ for fleece a7id carcafe^ leave him the greateft pro- 

 fit on an average of years ; or that will convert the produce of 

 his paflures, or a given quantity of food, into the mod money in 

 a given time. This converfion is, I humbly conceive, the crite- 

 rion of excellence in fheep and cattle. It is a principle, how* 

 ever, which feems to have been departed from in the experiment 

 at Edgerftone, (fee page 525, vol. 3. of your Magazine), where 

 the food was not weighed, and where the lean and voracious 

 Highlanders would, perhaps, confume more grafs than the Lei- 

 celler fheep, which, I underftand, were as fat as a * feal or 

 Hampfhire hog * at the commencement of the experiment, for 

 ivhich the ivedders ivere chcfen at tivo years old : (o that the valu- 

 able property of attaining early maturity, for which the latter 

 kind of fheep are fo much diftinguifhed, was totally difregarded. 

 Befides, Sir, when fo much importance was to be attached to the 

 proportional increafe of weight, was it fair to try very fat againfl- 

 lean or half-fat flieep ? In the experiments of Mr Billingfley, 

 (which I underftand are inferred in the 7th vol. of the Bath papers, 

 and which are faid to have been conduced with accuracy and 

 impartiality), the food was regularly weighed •, but, having been 

 taught to believe in the doftrines of the celebrated Mr Bakewell 

 and his difciples, particularly that * the new Leicefter flieep are 

 the bell machines for converting turnips and other rich food into 

 money,' I was much furprifed and difappointed, on being in- 

 formed, that the refults of thefe experiments were more favour- 

 able to the South-down, Cotfwold, and Mendip, than to the 

 Leicefter flieep. Thefe refults have made many converts, filenced. 

 fome noify advocates for the latter kind of fheep, and caufed 

 others to waver a little, in feveral parts of the country. It there- 

 fore feerps incumbent on fome of the followers of Bakewell an4 



N n n 2 Culley, 



