,48 ^ improvement ofjheep and wool. Jti^y 18* 

 x:oarser, though my own experience obliges me to de- 

 clare, that I conceive this general prejudice to be en- 

 tirely unfounded. I have seen many (heep that car- 

 ry very thin and light fleeces, though the wool was 

 exti-emely coarse ; and others exceedingly fine that 

 .were as.clofe as it is pofsible to conceive. Indeed it 

 •is now well known to every member of this society, 

 that, for closenefs of pile, no breed of fheep in this 

 icountry can be compared wiS;h the Spanifh breed. But 

 .it is not the word of an individual that ought to have 

 .-weight incases of this sort. It is clear and accurate 

 experiment alone that ought to l>e relied on, and it is 

 for that I contend. 



9. Shortnefs 0r length oj^ staple. 

 It can hardly be disputed that richnefs of psBtures, 

 and other favourable circumstances, have an influence 

 in lengthening the pile of wool. Some have hence 

 inferred that (liort and long wool might be inter- 

 xhangeably converted the one into the other ; hence 

 that no carding wool can be expected on rich pas- 

 tures, nor combing wool upon heathy commons. 

 Others, on the contrary, contend that there is a per- 

 manent, and unalterable difference in the length of 

 the wool of different breeds of Iheep, which no ma- 

 nagement can destroy ; that though a rich pasture 

 will, in all cases, produce a lengthier wool than one 

 .that, is poorer, in. the same manner as a rich soil will 

 produce a more luxuriant growth of plants of every 

 ■ sort that fliall be reared on it, than if they had grown 

 on one that is poorer ; yet that this does. not tend to 

 alter the ultimate proportional size of plants, to 

 . which nature has .prescribed certain differences that 



