Mountain Breeds of Sheep. 377 



"Steam is half an Englishman," and every breeder is aiming not 

 only to fill the butcher's eye, but to receive a larger annual cheque 

 from his wool-stapler. The Blackface, the Cheviot, the Lonk, 

 the Exmoor, and the Dartmoor, would always stand on their 

 merits, but the Herdwick would have given way ere this to a 

 breed with a better fleece and bigger frame, if one could have 

 been found to " bear pinching" half so well in such bitter winters 

 and on such scanty fare. The Cheviot cross might do much for 

 South Wales, and enable them to send a very different class of 

 cast ewes and wethers off their hills to be " finished" on the low- 

 lands. Still even in North Wales, where far more spirit and 

 capital have been brought to bear on flocks, there are many moun- 

 tains on which no cross-bred could live, except it were a union of 

 native and Herdwick. The pure Welsh are undisputed masters 

 of the situation above 2,500 feet, and those legs, which have so 

 long been prized both by " mutton-eating kings" and people, will 

 thrive as of yore, on those rocky cloud-capt heights where nothing 

 else save a sroat would climb. 



XXV. — Report of the Improvement of Grass-land on Mr. E. 

 Buck's Manor Farm, Braydon, Wilts. By Dr. A. Voelcker 

 and Professoe Coleman. 



The improvement of neglected pasture is a subject of the gravest 

 importance under existing circumstances. The arable land no 

 longer affords a return so satisfactory that grass can be left to 

 take care of itself. Stock-farming is not now the necessary evil 

 that it was, but the principal source of revenue ; accordingly all 

 that ministers to an increase of animal food must claim our most 

 serious attention, and we feel satisfied that the improvement of 

 our grass-land is the most simple and ready means of developing 

 our resources for stock. 



As a rule, farmers entertain very mistaken notions about 

 grass-land, evidently considering that pasture is a state of nature, 

 requiring no sort of cultivation : " only leave it alone and it will 

 be sure to come." This maxim, though true enough in certain 

 exceptional instances, is utterly inapplicable to the great majority 

 of cases. Sometliing will come, no doubt — rubbish of all kinds, 

 and poor innutritious herbage — but if we desire to have a profit- 

 able surface we must cultivate our grass-land just as carefully 

 and liberally as though under tillage. A very little consideration 

 will establish this principle on a practical basis. The rent must 

 be paid, whether we grow rushes or fine grass. The outlay in 

 labour is small ; so that if the return exceeds the cost of the 

 manures, &c., the speculation must succeed. 



