76 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



will learn their distinctive characteristics best from 

 some one of the many excellent illustrated works 

 published of late upon the subject. Suffice it to say, 

 that you had better, at least, begin with what good 

 specimens you can find of the breed approved of by 

 your neighbours, as no kind of domesticated animal 

 depends more upon locality than the sheep. If you 

 be destined hereafter to throw light upon the subject, 

 your turn will come when you have settled down to 

 your occupation. 



The different breeds have each much to be said in 

 their favour. The diminutive Dartmoor ; the semi- 

 tamed Radnor ; the obese, big, long-woolled midland 

 sheep ; the juicy Down ; the rich Merino — all have 

 their respective excellences. Much depends upon 

 locality; for while a long-legged, heavy sort is re- 

 quired to tread into fitting consistency for the growth 

 of wheat, the sago-pudding of the oolite formation — 

 on our unequal lands we find much profit from a 

 cross between the Cotswold, which in its pure state 

 degenerates among us, and the native Welsh sort ; 

 which, not to be confined between hurdles, you might 

 think there was more poetry than profit in attempt- 

 ing to improve. The Cotswold may possibly not 

 like our air, or finds not a sufficiency of special and 

 artificial food ; as the rhododendron will fail unless 

 it have a strong feed of peat soil at its roots. Any- 

 how, it recedes continually in size. 



Some affect a black variety, not as victims to pro- 

 pitiate the tempest, but for the peculiar tint of cloth 

 their wool yields, and which never wears white. The 

 late Sir Charles Morgan had a large flock of such. 



