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An Account of the progressive Improvement in Weight, and Value, of a FLOCK of SHEEP, 

 of different kinds, kept together and folded yi;;- Three If ears. 



By the MARQUIS of BATH, at Longleat, Wilts, 



In Order to afcertain their rejpe£iive Merits for Wiltjhire Hu/bandry, and afterwards fatted and killed together. 



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In this Experiment, Regard muft be had not only to the coinparative Improvement of each Kind of Sheep, but to the compa- 

 rative Quantity of Food confumed by each. It being a well-afcertained laft, that during the Time they are kept in a working 

 (or folding) State, their Food is nearly in Proportion to their Weight. So that not only eight South-Down Sheep have improved 

 equal to ten Dorfets, but the Food that maintained ten Dorfets, would have maintained fifteen South-Downs. 



The Objeft of this Experiment was, to determine what Kind of Sheep would beft bear hard Keeping and conllant Folding. 



The above Sheep were kept on a Traft of very poor heathy Land, not worth 3s. per Acre, and from thence driven to Fold 

 e^ery Night, (chiefly on Arable Land) from one to two JVIiles diftant from their Food.— The Refult feems to prove that the fmalLr 

 ftA^l °/ ^'^^*^P ^"^^ ^'^^ hardie/l. The fmall Increafe in Weight in the Leicefterfhire and the Cotfwold during the Time they were 

 \\rf '° '^'^^ ^'^^' long-woolcd Sheep are not fit for that Purpofe.- And as the three Kinds of horned Sheep (the Dorfets, 



Wjlts, and Mendip) have increafed in Value nearly an inverfe Ratio with their original Size, it feems tliat increaiing the Size ot 

 the Animal has made them lefs hardy. This Experiment alfo proves decidedly, that the South-Down Sheep are full as profitable, 

 to the Grazier, as to the Farmer. 



