INTRODUCTORY. 245 



although it might be urged that the well-marked differences in 

 our local breeds could only have been acquired by the influence 

 of climate and soil through long periods of time. We believe 

 that the sheep is a native animal, and that the wide distinction 

 between the early Cotswold, Southdown, and mountain sheep is 

 owing to the influences by which each was surrounded. These 

 peculiarities rendered them specially suitable for their life, 

 because they had arisen from external influences. And even at 

 the present time, speaking generally, it will often be found more 

 profitable to improve than supersede. Hence we find in all the 

 great sheep-breeding districts a tolerably distinct type ; and 

 these, again, are only blended together on what may be 

 described as intermediate land. It is probable that the pure 

 breeds may be imperfect in form, slow to feed, and apparently 

 very defective when compared with more improved sorts ; but 

 they possess qualifications which render them invaluable for the 

 peculiar country they inhabit ; and it is only when the con- 

 ditions to which they are accustomed, and which have stamped 

 their very peculiarities, are modified, that we can succeed either 

 in improvement or replacement. As examples we may mention 

 the Welsh mountain sheep, the black-faced sheep of Scotland, 

 the hardy Herdwicks of Cumberland and Westmoreland, the 

 -Cheviots, and the denizens of the Eomney Marshes in Kent. 

 Improvements in farming, tending as they do to diminish the 

 evil influences of climate, enable us to modify and improve the 

 native breeds, and in some instances to supersede them ; hence 

 there have grown up sorts that result from the blending 

 together of totally distinct types. These — and we particularly 

 allude to the Shropshire, the Oxfordshire, and the Border 

 Leicester — have, over large districts, taken the place of the 

 original sheep, to the manifest advantage of the farmer. 

 Having great facilities for improved management, and especially 

 being able to provide, by a judicious succession of crops, for 

 steady progressive development, our object is to combine plenty 

 of wool, weight of carcase, aptitude to feed, and quality of flesh 

 — points that are not united in any of the old distinct breeds. 

 Thus the Long wools yield large fleeces and plenty of mutton, 

 and have great aptitude to feed, but the quality of the flesh is 

 unsuitable for any but the coarser consumers — a fatal draw- 



