2 04 



THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



LONK RAM 



This is a photograph of the largest sheep on record 



[HtrthumsreJ 



SOA and ST. 



sheep. Later a large heavy 

 sheep, with long wool and a 

 massive body, was bred in 



the Midlands, and called 



the Leicester Long-wi m u . 

 This sheep gives a great cut 

 of wool, and much coarse 

 mutton. The O hah n Sin 1 i . 

 originally bred on the hills of 

 that name, is now one of the 

 mainstays of the Scotch moun- 

 tain farmer. The Cheviots 

 eat the grass on the high 

 hillsides, while the BLACK- 

 faced Highland Sheep 

 live on the heather higher 

 up. The Suffolk, Oxfi >rd, 

 Hampshire, and other 



"Down" sheep are larger 

 breeds than the South Down. 

 The R.OMNEY MARSH SHEEP 

 are a heavy long-woolled 

 breed. The EXMOORS are 

 KlLDA SHEEP, which are often 



small heather-sheep like those of Wales, and ill 

 four-horned, the smallest of all. 



The maintenance of flocks is now almost an essential part of English agriculture on all 

 chalk lands, which comprise a very large percentage of the southern counties. On the chalk 

 downs the flocks are the great fertilisers of the soil. Every night the sheep are folded on 

 the fields which are destined to produce corn in the following year. The manure so left on 

 the soil ensures a good crop, with no expense for carting the fertiliser from the farmyard, as 

 is the case with manure made by oxen kept in straw-yards. 



On the South Downs, Oxfordshire Downs or Chiltern Hills, Salisbury Plain, and the 

 Berkshire Downs the farms have been mainly carried on by the aid of the flocks. Where 

 these are no longer kept the land reverts to grass, and the growing of corn ceases. < >n the 

 coarse, new-sown grasses cattle take the place of sheep, and an inferior style of farming, like 

 the ranches of South America, replaces the 

 careful and highly skilled agriculture of Old 

 England. In the far north of Scotland cross- 

 bred sheep are now reared and fed in winter 

 on turnips, which will grow luxuriantly where 

 the climate is too bleak and wet for wheat. 



Formerly cattle were the main source 

 of wealth to the owners of Highland estates. 

 The sheep was only introduced after the 

 Highlands were subdued subsequently to 

 the rebellion in 1745. It was found that 

 the rough 1 oati d heather-sheep throve on the 

 wet and elevated hills. This led to their 

 substitution for cattle, as wool was then dear. 

 ' are now in their turn giving way to 



grouse and deer over much of the Central 

 Highlands, as the price' of wool has fallen. 



'. T. Ntwman] 



WELSH I W I S 



A small bned of / 



I Btrihamtttd 



