246 THE SHEEP OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



back. The Southdown gives us good flesh, but there is too 

 little of it, and the fleece is light. It is evident that something 

 between these extremes is very desirable when we have favour- 

 able conditions, and it is a fact that the Shropshire sheep more 

 especially, and the Oxfordshires to some extent, have pushed 

 their way far from home, and have, in several instances, super- 

 seded the pure breeds. This substitution is possible just in 

 proportion and to the degree that our treatment differs from 

 the natural conditions under which the sheep originally existed. 

 In order to do justice to an improved sort, great care must be 

 exercised as to the selection and succession of food. Constant 

 progress is absolutely necessary, and it will not do to fill one 

 day and starve the next. Climate really decides the question 

 as to the kind of sheep. On the Cots wold hills, which range 

 from 400 to 600 feet above the level of the sea, where the soil 

 is a thin limestone with stones, and where clover and sainfoin 

 grow well, and where the root crops can be eaten on the land, 

 the heavy-woolled and somewhat strong-boned Cotswolds are 

 unrivalled. With such jackets they do not feel the wind, and, 

 so long as the lair is dry, flourish excellently. The Lincoln is 

 capable of holding its own on the strong grass of the fen 

 districts ; and the cross of Lincoln and Leicester is most 

 approved of on the uplands. Even the Romney Marsh sheep, 

 retained pure on the marsh district, have been considerably 

 crossed on the upper lands, with manifest improvement. 

 Nothing can live on the high lands like the Welsh or Scotch 

 mountain sheep ; but wherever the conditions are ameliorated 

 we find a cross or another sort substituted with advantage. 

 Modern farming has a tendency to mitigate extremes, and the 

 farmer who is supplied with all the accessories of improved 

 agriculture has means at his disposal which enable him to 

 provide for his stock in a way conducive to their development,, 

 and which would have been quite impossible fifty years ago. 

 Hence we are not surprised at the very rapid spread of the 

 Shropshire sheep, which appear likely to monopolise the great 

 west-central district of England. 



