344 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



manufacturers are the proper judges. As mutton, they are pre 

 eminent, combining with extraordinary fatness a fair proportion 

 of lean meat, and in taste, deemed equal to the Highland sheep. 

 We, I think, as a people, have yet to acquire a taste for mutton. 

 In this respect, we differ altogether from the English, with whom, 

 in spite of all we hear about &quot;the roast beef of old England,&quot; 

 mutton seems every where the preferred dish. The immense 

 quantities of poultry, likewise, which are brought to our markets, 

 will stand in the way of other meats ; yet our markets, espe 

 cially in our large cities, are likely to furnish a steady and increas 

 ing demand for mutton ; and wherever they can be reached, I 

 believe that no breed of sheep are so likely to meet and con 

 stantly stimulate that demand, as the beautiful mutton of the 

 South Down sheep. 



(5.) General Management of Sheep. I must remind my 

 friends in the United States, that excellence in any department 

 of husbandry has not been reached here, and can no where be 

 sustained, without persevering efforts, and an extreme watchful 

 ness and care. Sheep here are never left to take care of them 

 selves, but have always a shepherd with them, commonly a boy 

 or an old man, by day, and are carefully folded at night. The 

 fatting sheep, while the artificial feed remains, are fed in folds.* 

 The general impression with us, I know, is, that they are turned 

 into a field of unpulled turnips, and left to gnaw them into the 

 ground ; but this method, unless the turnips are very small, is not 

 much practised or approved. The turnips are generally drawn 

 for them, cut up by a machine, and placed in troughs. This is 

 especially important in respect to Swedes. An experienced far 

 mer in Nottinghamshire informed me that he was averse to 



* &quot; It is the custom for almost every grazier to have sheep follow on the grasses 

 after the beasts. It is true, our system of feeding&quot; the majority of sheep is much 

 altered. The increased population demands it should b.e. It was formerly the 

 practice to let the sheep graze, and have the lean nourished by degrees, until 

 they were two years old ; but now the plan is, to feed sheep as highly as they 

 will bear, to make them fat as lambs, keep them so, and bring them to heavy 

 weights at one year old. The sheep fed in this way leave a great profit : but the 

 principal inducement to adopt this plan is for the advantage which the land de 

 rives. You are aware that nothing will produce such a crop of grain as a turnip 

 field eaten off by sheep folded upon it, especially with the addition of oil cake 

 and grain.&quot; Extract from private Letter. 



