450 Breeds of Sheep best adapted to different Localities. 



from using a few hundredweights of guano. For mountain sheep 

 there are none comparable with the Herdwicks. 



I cannot leave the subject without again adverting to a practice 

 previously noticed in describing the Herdwicks, viz., putting first- 

 class Leicester and Southdown rams to Herdwick ewes ; the 

 produce is a very superior animal for grazing purposes, and fattens 

 quickly to a large size, combining hardihood and aptitude to fatten 

 beyond any other breed or cross, particularly as hoggets.* If this 

 kind of sheep should become generally distributed over our worst 

 description of mountain land, I believe the mountain flock-owner 

 would find it his most profitable business to rear the crosses 

 alluded to as stores for the lowland farmers, and that the latter 

 would find it more profitable to purchase such stock than to be 

 rearing lambs. From these considerations, and also from ob- 

 serving that, unless carefully looked after, both the improved 

 Southdown and Leicester gradually become changed for the 

 worse in the course of two or three descents, I look upon it as 

 an established fact in husbandry, that tup-breeding will become 

 more and more a distinct occupation. In stating this I do not 

 anticipate a continuance of very high prices for male animals; 

 but I believe the practice of buying or hiring tups, instead of 

 using a home-bred animal, will become more generally adopted, 

 as flockmasters will find their profitable account in doing so, 

 whilst the extended demand will remunerate tup-breeders for the 

 lower prices accepted. In viewing the original habitats of the 

 large and small breeds of sheep, it will be seen that the Tees- 

 water, Lincoln, and Leicester were originally produced on rich 

 lowland pastures, where the absorbent properties of the soil, 

 whether it consists of marl, clay, or vegetable loam, except in 

 very dry seasons, yields a plentiful supply of juicy herbage; con- 

 sequently animals grazing such pastures would not be under the 

 necessity of using much exertion in procuring sufficient food. 

 The combined effects of using little exercise and passing a con- 

 siderable part of their time in the act of rumination, would 

 cause the air-cells of the lungs to be constantly surcharged 

 with blood. t This deficiency of exercise would also predispose 

 the animal to be still more inactive, by which means a large 

 part of the carbonaceous matter of the food, which would oiher- 



* The practice of putting Southdown rams to mountain sheep is now much followed 

 amongst some farmers adjacent to the Clioydiar Range of hills in Flintshire and Den- 

 bighshire, and is found a very profitable method of breeding good useful lambs ; the 

 practice is principally followed by the lowland farmers of this district, who purchase 

 in autumn a flock of ewes from the mountain farmer, feed them on turnips, &c., during 

 the winter, send the lambs to market in summer, and the ewes in the autumn following. 



i Prize runners, in order " to obtain wind,'' as it is termed, undergo severe training, 

 in running and walking exercise, in order to remove the partial state of repletion of 

 the lungs, arising from tlie inactivity and overfeeding of ordmary life. 



