( INTRODUCTION, 7 



of the mountains of North Wales or Scotland. 

 Neither can the South Down Sheep, with all their 

 excellence, supplant either those of the mountainous 

 parts of the kingdom or of the marshes of Romney. 

 Youatt says : "In all the different districts of the 

 kingdom, we find various breeds of sheep [and, he 

 might have added, cattle] beautifully adapted to the 

 locality which they occupy. No one knows their 

 origin : they are indigenous to the soil, climate, and 

 pasturage, the locality on which they graze : they seem 

 to have been formed by it and for it." This is 

 very true, and it would seem that less has been done 

 by the agriculturist than by nature. In consequence 

 of the large growth of cereals in Essex, and the 

 absence of hills and wastes, it has not been found 

 profitable to keep, for any great number of years, any 

 strain of animals in any particular district. The 

 result has been, therefore, that natural effects and 

 environments have not had sufficient time to produce 

 those modifications in the race which result in the 

 establishment of a localised race or breed. It is to 

 the constant changes in the numbers of the stock on 

 our corn lands, and to insufficient facilities for rearing 

 young stock, less than to the lack of skill and enterprise 

 amongst our agriculturists, that we may attribute 

 the non-localisation of a special breed of cattle 



The large estuaries of Essex, to which allusion has 



