'yi improvement hfjheep and wooL J"^y i8. 



real alteration of the qualities of the breed ; though 

 it be, in fact, only an accidental v-nxK^ktvony occasioned 

 by the influence of collateral circumstances ; for, in 

 all other respects but the size, these breeds, in all 

 circumstaiKcs^ preserve their original and distinctive 

 difFerence ; and let them change places they will 

 quickly return to what they w°re before. The 

 ■Plighland cattle, restored to th-rir barren hills^ 

 will dwindle to their former size; and the Englifh 

 breed, in its rich vales afsume their former magni- 

 tude, and be exactly the same thiiig, after many ge- 

 nerations, as they were at first, if the breed has not 

 been contaminated. Just so it happens in the vege- 

 table kingdom. The hawthorn which springs up 

 in a rich and fertile vale, rises to a lofty tree, spreads 

 wide its branches around, and outstrips the oak itself 

 ubich grows on a niggard soil, and in an exposed si- 

 tuation ; but this deviation from the laws of nature. J 

 is only an accidental, not a radical change. 



\t is in this way that circumstances which only: 

 produce accidental changes on the qualities of fheep 

 and wool, having not been distinguiflied from the 

 mcft'e permanent changes resulting from breeds, have 

 occasioned a confusion of ideas on this head that 

 ought to be removed : An enterprise that seems ta 

 be highly worthy the, attention of tTiis society. Many-. 

 men have obser^'ed, for example, that rich pastures, 

 augment the length of wool, which it no doubt does ; 

 hence they conclude, that long or fliort wool depends^ 

 entirely o\\ pastures, and net on the nature of the ori- 

 ginal breed ; though they must very often see in the 

 same pastures, different breeds, which, in this respect, 

 rreserve all their or igifialqualities.unimpaired. OtherSi 



