[ i6 3 



we difcover any varieties of the other domeltick 

 animals of the fmooth-haired kinds that we have 

 been accuftomed to rear, which fliould afford wool as 

 tlie flieep does, the benefit we might derive from 

 fubftituting thefe wool-bearing breeds, inflead of 

 thofe hairy forts we now propagate, would be very 

 great, if their qualities in other refpefts be nearly 

 the fame. 



Of all the varieties of domeflick animals we have 

 been accuftomed to rear in Europe, next to the 

 Iheep, the bullock is the mofl: valuable. We, it is 

 true, like the inhabitants of Madagafcar with re- 

 gard to flieep, have been hitherto in the cuftom of 

 rearing the fmooth-haired bullock only; and though, 

 perhaps, like the inhabitants of Madagafcar, we may 

 have accidentally heard that there are fome varieties 

 of this clafs of animals that carry fomething like 

 wool in other parts of^the world ; yet, as thefe have 

 never come to our door, and prefented ♦■hemfelves to 

 us, we either doubt if fuch animals do exift, -or 

 conclude they v/ould not thrive with us, and there- 

 fore fit flill contented with what we have, without ma- 

 king any efforts to better ourfelves. Is it not a well- 

 known faft, that we have continued for more than 

 a hundred years pall to import wool from Spain 

 in great quantities every year, without ever once 

 attempting to rear the breed of flieep that produced 

 it, though they were in a manner at our door? And 

 is it not alfo known, that inflead of making a fair 



experiment 



