THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



39 



serving the highest encouragement. These varieties are 

 numerous, but one classification includes the whole. 

 The Cheviot is decidedly a mountain sheep, but his great 

 size and proportionate frame entitle him to a higher 

 rank than the small ordinary sheep of the mountains. 

 The Northumberland breeders deserve the greatest credit 

 for the improvements they have effected in this valuable 

 breed, but the range of country over which it extends is 

 rather too limited to entitle it to a separate classification. 

 The various and numerous attempts to establish new breeds 

 by judicious crossings have not yet been fully realized ; 

 but there are several old breeds of sheep quite distinct 

 in their character, and some of them highly deserving 

 a distinctive classification as a peculiar breed ; and some 

 of them require to be brought before a discerning public, 

 in order that their defects might be pointed out, and their 

 breeders stimulated to improve them — the Romney 

 Marsh sheep, for instance, or the " Old Kents" again, 

 or the old Norfolks, the Rylands, the Teeswater, &c. 



There are other very valuable breeds of great im- 

 portance, for which no proper classification is provided 

 by the Society. The most valuable and numerous of 

 these is the Lincoln long-woolled breed. This breed 

 extends over a very large breadth of country, including 

 a great part of Lincolnshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, 

 the counties of Nottingham, Leicester, Rutland, Derby, 

 Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, Beds, and parts 

 of Norfolk, Suffolk, Herts, Warwick, Stafford, &c. 

 They are nearly allied to the Leicester breed, but possess 

 larger frames, more wool, and that of a longer and 

 rather coarser quality ; indeed, they are in a great 

 measure propagated and upheld on account of the extra- 

 ordinary fleeces they produce, and which makes them so 

 valuable as a distinct breed. In size they are not so 

 large in their general proportions as the Cotswolds, nor 

 are they like them in character ; but their fleeces are far 

 superior, and they do not yield a much less weight of 

 mutton. Mr. Robert Smith, in his Chester report, says 

 he has " known 14 months old lamb-hogs slaughtered 

 at Lincoln fair, 30 together, averaging 351bs. perqr., 

 and 100 together clipped 141bs. each of washed wool." 

 The writer knows of one clip, shorn this summer, and 

 grazed upon a neighbouring farm — the 324 hogget 

 fleeces yielded 66 tods of 3 fleeces each, and 63 tods of 

 2 fleeces each. A ewe bred by himself, when slaughtered, 

 weighed upwards of 651bs. per qr. Also a ram (now 

 living) has yielded above 361bs. of wool in eight shear- 

 ings, an average of near 171bs. of good wool. Many 

 facts like these can readily be adduced, and many to ex- 

 ceed them, both in wool and mutton. 



Another feature in their favour is, that the Lincoln- 

 shire hogget wool of strong hair or fibre, and averaging 

 about from 10 to 14 lbs. per fleece, is nearly worth as 

 much in the market as the finest qualities, the last quo- 

 tations being for Lincolnshire long wool 47s. 6d. per tod, 

 for Southdown 50s. Numbers of flocks this year would 

 average in wool per sheep from 14s. to 20s. each. The 

 above clip would average at 45s. per tod (at which price 

 many clips have this season been sold), or about 18s. 

 per fleece. Taking into consideration the total amount 

 of wool and mutton produced by this particular breed of 

 sheep, it is very questionable if we have a more profit- 

 able breed in the kingdom, and yet the Society have no 

 separate class for them. If wool of this strength of hair 

 is so well worth growing on our acres, it is worth the 

 specific attention of the Society, and its claims for a 

 separate class are paramount. It cannot compete in the 

 Leicester classes, because they are not pure Leicesters ; 

 neither can they favourably compete in the Long-wooiled 

 classes, because the gigantic Cotswolds exceed them in 

 size and substance ; and thus far this has been held to 

 be the great perfection in these classes. 



Now the funds of the Society are in that prosperous 



state as to permit the extension of its prize list, and 

 this extension to the classes of sheep noticed would not 

 only be an act of justice to the breeders of these classes 

 of sheep, but would bring in a long list of subscriptions 

 from them. The operations of the Society are very large, 

 almost unmanageable as it is. Let more officers, then, 

 be appointed — more judges be selected; these would all 

 be forthcoming if only invited. The thing is easily prac- 

 ticable, and the Council of the Society will act unjustly 

 to the improvers of these breeders if they longer refuse 

 them a place at their vast and most important of all 

 meetings connected with the improvement of agriculture. 



MODEL DESIGN FOR A FARM-YARD 

 GATE. 



We copy the above engraving from an American paper (;The 

 Agricidturisl). We learn that it is not a fancy sketch taken 

 from the author's brain, but that it is a drawing taken from 

 one which stands at one of the entrances to " Wodenethe," 

 the picturesque and unique residence of H. W. Sargent, oppo- 

 site to Newburgh, on the Hudson river. It is constructed of 

 wood, and every part of it, even to the latch, is the representa- 

 tion of some implement used in agriculture. These are wea- 

 pons with which the virgin soil can be made to yield up its 

 golden treasures, and fill the granaries and barns, and the 

 home with luxuries from its rich atore-house. The spade^ 

 mattock, and hoe have been praised in song : 



'' It was not the sword that won our best battle, 



Created our commerce, extended our trade, 

 Gave food to our wives, our children, our cattle ; 



But the queen of all weapons— the spade, boys, the spade." 

 And thus we might sing of all the various implements, 

 which the cultivator of the soil should reel are his weapons, 

 and have an honest pride in using them. 



As few things give more character to the general appearance 

 of a farm than a handsome gate at the entrance ; and as the 

 above seems to be most unique, we readily present it to our 

 readers as, if not a valuable, at least an original idea.— Ed. 

 F.M. 



