Breeds of Sheep lest adapted to different Localities, 425 



but the sheep which are now kept by farmers generally he considered an 

 improved sheep — improved in size, and in the produce as to quantity, as 

 appHcable to carcase, and also more wool, but not of so fine a quality. 

 In sorting wool in that part of the county of Kent, at the time that fine 

 wool bore a good price, used to make about one-eighth of our best quality 

 of English wool ; now (1828) we do not set a basket for it at all ; the 

 quantity is so small we do not throw it out, we do not separate it. Had 

 been in the habit for several years of purchasing the fleeces of particular 

 flocks ; there is one flock of Southdown wool in the county of Sussex that 

 he has had from the year 1792 up to 1828 ; and in the year 1814 the 

 fleeces ran, some fourteen to the tod, and some few fifteen, and some few 

 sixteen and seventeen. Had some wool last year and it ran eleven and a 

 half fleeces to the tod all the way through, so that there has been an in- 

 crease of weight of probably one-third, and of course a deterioration of 

 quality; the quantity of coarse wool has greatly increased from that 

 description of sheep. As far as his observation goes, wherever in- 

 cisures take place and the land becomes better cultivated, they keep a 

 better kind of sheep, and Southdown sheep of a good size are always more 

 marketable than of a small size. There are some few Southdown flocks 

 now, the wool of which is as good as ever it was, but generally they are 

 deteriorated." 



Mr. William Cunnington, woolstapler, Wiltshire, principally 

 purchased Southdown wool, and gave the folio\Ying- particulars of 

 Southdown wool assorted : — ■ 



"In the year 1815 one of thos€ portions of wool, the gross weight of 

 which was 1006 lbs., made the best quality in sorting 60 lbs. ; and in the 

 year 1827 the same wool, grown on the same farm, made none of that 

 quality. From the year 1811 till 1822 lived at Heytesbury, and sold the 

 whole of my wool, or nearly so, to the Frome Market ; and when I 

 removed to where I now reside, near Pewsey, I sold then the greater 

 portion of my wool still in Frome ; but within the last two years the 

 greater part has been sent to Rochdale, and that district, where it is used 

 principally for flannels, baizes, and goods of that description, Attributed 



