SHEtP. 



161 



different kinds, as we now find them, have descended from 

 stocks which were of the same genus, but possessing proper- 

 ties different from each other. It has been found that different 

 soils are best suited to different breeds of sheep : and that the 

 soil often serves eventually to produce a difference in sheep. 

 Fat pastures, it has been observed, breed straight, tall sheep, 

 and the barren hills, short, square ones. The large long 

 wooled sheep of Great Britain require rich pastures ; and it 

 has been thought will suit them belter than any other sheep. 

 A wet soil, salt marshes excepted, is, however, unfriendly to- 

 sheep of all kinds. 



It is important that farmers, in stocking their farms wiUi 

 sheep, should pay attention to such as are best suited to theii 



soil. 1 J ■ V 



It is believed that much of the high, moist lands m the 

 northern and middle States, would be found suitable for rais- 

 ing the large long wooled English sheep. 



But in the United States, as well as in England, it is an ob* 

 ject worthy of attention, to have our farms stocked with sheep 

 of various kinds, that our citizens may be supplied with the 

 various sorts of cloths which are necessary in different uses. 

 In England, they have the Teeswater, the Lincolnshire, and 

 the DELTtmoor breeds, which yield fleeces of long coarse wool, 

 weighing on an average, from eight to eleven pounds. The 

 wool of those sheep, and of the Heath, Exmere, and Berkshire 

 breeds, which are smaller, and have still coarser wool, is made 

 use of for the manufacture of blankets, carpets, and other 

 cloths of a coarse texture. The New-Leicester and Bakewell 

 breeds, and the Eastwold, and Romney-marsh breeds, have 

 long wool also, but somewhat finer, being better fitted for the 

 manufacture of worsted fabricks ; and the average weight of 

 their fleeces is from eight to nine pounds ; the average weight 

 of their quarters is from twenty-two to twenty-four pounds. 

 The Bakewell is an improved breed, which was engrafted 

 upon some of those before mentioned, and are, it is said, high- 

 ly esteemed for the fatness of their carcases, and the fine fla- 

 vor of their mutton. The English have also various other 

 breeds besides the meri^io, yielding fleeces of short wool of 

 various quantities and qualities, the finest of which are the 

 Dunfaced and Shetland breeds ; the next finest is the Hereford, 

 or Ryeland breed, and the next the South Downs. The latter, 

 it is said, very much resemble our common sheep, having wool 

 about equally fine, and that in England they are esteemed 

 2 



