706 
ried in red clover up to their eyes, and the re- 
fuse mown afterwards for hay ; but this was 
buying a good thing too dear; it is not the 
size of individual sheep, but the quantity of 
good meat and wool per acre which must en- 
rich the farmer, and feed the public. Lt is 
to be Jamented that we are such slaves to 
size, and that the eye can hardly resist it. A 
medium is most desirable; but if extremes 
are to be admitted, without ‘4 doubt the small 
sheep, fine in its grain, is a more market- 
able commodity. ‘The rich will have it, be- 
canse iis quality is superior; in short, be- 
cause it eats better; the poor man will find 
its joints more adapted to the strength of his 
purse; and the dearer meat is to be, the more 
this argument applies; for legs and shoulders 
of mutton cannot conveniently be cut, and 
retailed in pieces. ‘There remained, then, but 
the manufacturer, the mechanic, and the 
middle class of housekeeper, to prefer coarse- 
grained meat; so we reasoned when we first 
_ gent this Rycland mutton to market, but these 
were the very people who greedily bought it 
at a penny per pound advance in price, and 
that too in a manufacturing district. But 
we are told that sailors, colliers, and keel- 
men, are sure customers for these over-fat 
joints; so they are, and longmay they enjoy 
them! Fresh meat is fresh meat to a man 
coming from sea, but if he stays long in har- 
bour, and were.once to break pale, and get a 
taste of better mutton, perhaps it would be 
no easy matter to bring him back again. We 
are told too, that coarse fat mutton is best for 
salting: nutton is not atall well suited to this 
purpose, beef and pork take salt better. IPf 
men are to be kept on salt meat, be it so; if 
they are to live on mutton, let that be good 
in quality. One of the first cutting butchers 
in London has often been heard to say, that 
he could not afford to buy fat coarse-grained 
sheep; for that, besides the loss in spine fat, 
which he was obliged to cut from roasting 
joints, there was not lean enough to support 
the fat, which therefore roasted away; and 
that so long as meat bears a better price than 
tallow, so long he must deal in South-downs, 
and sheep of that description. We have said 
thus much, because false arguments are too 
often used to enforce adoption of heavy sheep; 
in distriets- ill suited to them., Where land 
is deep and. strong cnough to bear long- 
woolled sheep, there let. them be bred; but 
let. them not be foisted, by false arguments, 
on land unable to maintain them; by so 
doing, the public is most essentially injured. 
Our combing and coarse-wool manufacturers 
must be supplied, and therefore our strong 
Jand should be allotted to carry coarse, heavy 
sheep; but if, on the same false principle, 
ene ts to be pushed every where to the ex- 
elusion of the other, I, for one, am old-fa- 
shioned enough to prefer clothes to carpets, 
a necessary to a luxury. If carpets are to be 
exported, well and good; they may, perhaps, 
pay as well as coarse woollen sent to South 
America, or elsewhere; but if carpets are to 
"7 
be consumed at home, as they have been for 
some years past, the manufacturer, indeed, is 
fed by what he earns; but for any addition 
to the national revenue, he may as well sit 
with his hands behind him, and at once be 
fed from the pocket of the richer classes: it 
is only receiving with one hand and paying 
with the other; the nation wil) not be en- 
tiched; and the same thing may be said of 
every article of luxury consumed at home. 
This is very unfashionable doctrine without 
doubt, but it istootrue. In treating of Rye- 
land sheep, it may not be amiss to remark, that 
they are not a mountain sheep, as many sup- 
pose, but are bred in the vales of Hereford 
and Ross, on the very same Tand with the 
Hereford oxen. _ ct ith yp 
“ How many favourite theories will be 
knocked on the head by this one fact! If 
the same land breeds the smallest and: finest 
woolled sheep, it breeds also the largest oxen 
in our kingdom. A country must be envied, 
which, without minute attention to the sci- 
ence of breeding, can turn out two opposite 
animals in size, so good in their kind; it 
teaches us that more dependance is to, be 
placed on the breed or race of animals’than 
we are at firstaware. We offer no comment 
on circumstances seemingly so contradictory, 
we only record them as facts.” Lest 
RURAL ECONOMY AND GARDENING. 
ft} MiEL4d 
Lord Somerville greatly recommends 
salt as an article of diet for sheep: the 
fondness of many animals for it has long 
been known, and also that it is usual in 
some countries to give it to sheep. The 
benefit to be derived from this mode of 
practice to the general health of the ani» 
mal we are not disposed to controvert, 
but we cannot so readily allow it'to be a 
specific for the rot; this disorder, we are 
very certain, is caused by the animal 
taking the embryo of the t ai with its 
food, and it is not likely that the small 
quantity of salt allowed to each sheep 
should destroy them. 
On the subject of ploughs, a copy of 
a letter from M. de Neufchateau is given; 
the purpose of which was to answer 
‘some objections made by him to Lord 
Somerville’s patent double-furrow plough, 
and to give an account of a ploughing 
match being won by this implement; as 
the result of the match was already 
known, this might as well have been 
omitted; coming from the noble patentee, 
it-has too much the appearance of a 
puff. ; 4 
The rest of this work is taken up with 
an account of the cattle shew instituted 
by his Lordship. . For his indefatigable 
attention to this subject, and the ade 
mirable disposition of the premiums, he 
has our unqualified commendation; a 
