422 MODERN FARRIER. 



and fleeces, and other properties ; but the following 

 description, by that excellent stock-farmer, Mr. Cul- 

 ley, deserves the attention of the breeder and gra- 

 zier. According to him, his head should be fine 

 and small, his nostrils wide and expanded, his eyes 

 prominent, and rather bold or daring, ears thin, his 

 collar full from his breast and shoulders, but taper- 

 ing gradually all the way to where the neck and 

 head join, which should be very fine and graceful, 

 being perfectly free from any coarse leather hanging 

 down ; the shoulders broad and full, which must at 

 the same time join so easy to the collar forward, and 

 chine backward, as to leave not the least hollow in 

 either place ; the mutton upon his arm or fore-thigh 

 must come quite to the knee : his legs upright, 

 with a clean fine bone, being equally clear from su- 

 perfluous skin and coarse hairy wool from the knee 

 and hough downwards ; the breast broad and well 

 forward, which will keep his fore-legs at a proper 

 wideness ; his girth or chest full and deep, and in- 

 stead of a hollow between the shoulders, that part by 

 some called the fore-flank should be quite full ; the 

 back and loins broad, flat, and strait, from which 

 the ribs must rise with a fine circular arch ; his belly 

 straight, the quarters long and full, with the mutton 

 quite down to the hough, which should neither 

 stand in nor out ; his twist, or junction of the inside 

 of the thighs, deep, wide, and full, which, with the 

 broad breast, will keep his fore-legs open and up- 

 right ; the whole body covered with a thin pelt, and 

 that with fine, bright, soft wool. It is observed, 

 that the nearer any breed of sheep come up to the 

 above description, the nearer they approach towards 

 excellence of forai. 



But though this is a very correct, appropriate, 

 and admirable description of a finely-formed ram, 

 objections have been made by some to a few of the 

 properties which are laid down. Width and expan- 

 sion of the nostrils in sheep, it is supposed, are liable 



