Breeds of S/ieejy best adapted to different Localities. 427 



The following valuable table of the prices paid by Mr. Not- 

 tage in Kent, in the spring-, for wools, indicates the gradual 

 change which has taken place in the relative values of Southdown 

 and lono- or combing wool ; — 



The preceding lengthened statements respecting the price, &c. 

 of wool, have been made in order to demonstrate, as it does most 

 clearly, that it is now impossible to seek an increased money return 

 from Southdown sheep by its increased price as a felting wool : 

 the attention paid on the Continent and Australia to the finer 

 qualities of wool will for ever render abortive attempts to rival those 

 countries, either as regards price or quality, particularly as the 

 wool-grower in this country has a climate to contend with adverse 

 to the growth of the finer qualities. I state this advisedly, 

 notwithstanding 1 hold a very strong impression that the major 

 part of the broad and finest cloths were almost exclusively manu- 

 factured from British wool from a period commencing with the 

 Christian era up to the thirteenth century, and that a large por- 

 tion of the wool exported during that period was of the finest 

 description. The account previously given of the price of Shrop- 

 shire wool, the highest in England, is in a great degree con- 

 firmatory of this opinion, and was composed most probably of the 

 fleeces of the more common sheep, which were so long the pride 

 and boast of Shropshire, producing as they did the finest wool in 

 England, superior to the Ryelands. The Morfe sheep have 

 small horns, with speckled dark or black faces and legs; their 

 general characteristics are more or less to be found amongst all 

 the short-woolled breeds throughout the British European 

 dominions, whether we search amongst the Kerry, Wicklow, and 

 Galway mountains in Ireland, the Ryelands, Southdown, and 

 Herd wicks in England, or the diminutive race found in the 

 Orkneys and Shetland Isles. The Herdwicks may be classed 

 amongst the middle woolled species : this arises in a great measure 

 from the great quantity of kempy locks which compose the fleece 



