FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 153 



as a concomitant of the production of wool. Near 

 large meat markets, mutton is the prime considera- 

 tion and wool but the accessory ; remote from such 

 markets, the converse of the proposition is true. But 

 it does not follow in either case that the secondary 

 object is to be unnecessarily neglected. 



The increase in the numbers and in the early ma- 

 turity of sheep, enables England to support a vastly 

 larger population than it possibly could have done 100 

 years ago. It is hardly too much to say that the con- 

 tinued sustenance of its people and the fertility of its 

 soil depend upon these animals. England proper, 

 with an area of 50,922 square miles, has thirty mil- 

 lions of sheep. Without these, its soils could not be 

 maintained in their present productiveness, and its 

 population of 17,000,000 supplied with animal and 

 vegetable food. It is now a conceded fact, that an 

 equivalent result could not even approximately be 

 obtained by the substitution of any other animals. 



It is not safe in a country of vast territory and 

 sparse population like our own, to decide economic 

 questions exclusively by English analogies and modes 

 of reasoning. But in our own older Northern States, 

 we are making some advance toward English condi- 

 tions, at least in the circumstance of having a large 

 class who are not agricultural producers : and we 

 shall continue to make nearer approaches in that re- 

 spect. 



' We read much of the traditional " roast beef" of 

 England, but mutton now is the favorite animal food 

 of her luxurious classes, and the cheapest animal food 

 of her laboring classes. The same tastes and eco- 

 nomic considerations are beginning to obtain a rapid 

 7* 



