666 



SHEEP. 



that soil has not been washed away by rains, or re- 

 moved by any other mechanical means, for all is ob- 

 viously in a state of nature, and the situations are 

 places of deposit, not of wearing or wasting away. 

 The question then arises, what has become of the 

 rich soil that nourished those great oaks, and some 

 of them are truly gigantic, which are now found 

 buried in the bogs ? The only answer that can be 

 given to this question is, that the bog plants have not 

 only exterminated all the more kindly vegetation on 

 the surface, but have consumed the very soil by which 

 those plants were supported, have destroyed both the 

 produce and the land. 



Now, if, in the places of its greater accumulation, 

 this " poison of the bog," for so we may term it, is 

 capable of eating up the soil which had sufficed for 

 the growth of oaks of the largest dimensions, it fol- 

 lows, by obvious consequence, that, upon the general 

 surface, where there is a cold and dripping atmo- 

 sphere, the same plague will be able effectually to 

 destroy the grasses, and all those more kindly plants 

 which are available for the pasturage of stock. Nor 

 is there any doubt that this is the cause which has 

 rendered so much of the hilly parts of the country 

 comparatively barren and useless ; and pasturing 

 with sheep appears to be the only means by which 

 this evil can be cured. Therefore, these animals have 

 a value beyond that which they yield in their carcasses 

 and fleeces, great though that is. 



This " poison of the bog," to which sheep appear 

 to be the only certain and effectual antidote, is by no 

 means a passive evil. When once established, it 

 spreads, and no ordinary labour of man can arrest its 

 progress. It invades the surrounding land, and in- 

 vades it not merely with its presence, but with the 

 climate which it brings along with it. That climate 

 is decidedly a winter or polar one, one of cold and 

 damp, and uncongeniality to every thing useful that 

 the earth can produce. Summer is, in all temperate 

 climates, really the winter of the mosses, unless they 

 have so far got the better of every other kind of 

 vegetation, as to have their own dripping atmosphere 

 all the year round ; and whenever this is the case, 

 farewell to all that is beautiful or valuable on the sur- 

 face of the earth. In average situations, the mosses 

 are green and thriving only in the winter months ; 

 and whenever the state of things becomes such that 

 they are green in the summer, then the almost neces- 

 sary accompaniment is, that no other class of plants 

 can be green at any season. In moss-clad places the 

 winters are al\v*ys extremely cold, because the mosses 

 retain so muclflmoisture, that every sunbeam in the 

 latter part of the year is absorbed in the evaporating 

 of it ; and then, when the summer occurs, they are as 

 liable to be parched with burning drought. They are 

 constantly dying at the roots and growing at the 

 summits, so that they very soon cover the earth with 

 a deposit of moss in which no other deposit will grow ; 

 and thus the surface is ruined in as far as any valu- 

 able crop, or use in the finding of food for human 

 beings, is concerned, once, and for ever, unless 

 reclaimed at an expense of drainage and other means, 

 which amounts to fully more than the fee-simple of 

 the land. But this is not all ; the evil, once having 

 got the mastery in one place, steals onward in all 

 directions ; mildews and white frosts invade the por- 

 tions under cultivation ; and they spread and spread, 

 till the whole country becomes barren and unprofit- 

 able. The writer of this article remembers well that 



there was no ripening of corn in the vicinity of the 

 peat moss ; and that though peat earth, when not 

 too much soured by tannin, which it always is if the 

 bog contains many remains of trees other than pines, 

 is not unfavourable to the growth of the potato, the 

 leaves of these plants used to be blackened in the 

 early spring, and the crop became a perfect failure. 

 Where matters have proceeded to this length, no 

 pasture of sheep can be of any avail ; but it is only 

 in particular situations where this can take place, and 

 over the general surface of even a moist country 

 which is hilly, the moss itself cannot accumulate, but 

 in time gives way to lichen, and that absolutely eats 

 up the heather, and the result is a surface of absolute 

 sterility. If sheep are introduced in time, this may 

 be averted, and the grass nibbled by them, and kept 

 from flowering, may spread, and in time produce a 

 more kindly and valuable surface, to which the drop- 

 pings of the sheep contribute not a little. 



There is another state of things in which sheep are 

 not less valuable, and that is where the tendency is 

 not to produce moss and peat-bog, but arid waste. 

 This is the ultimate tendency of nature on the dry 

 downs in the south of England ; and it is still more 

 marked and conspicuous in countries which are 

 of a more dry and sandy character. Whether the 

 pasturage of sheep could have prevented the forma- 

 tion of the Great Desert which extends from the 

 west of Africa to almost the extrem.e north-east of 

 Asia, is a point which cannot now be determined, 

 because that desert is confirmed in its desolation be- 

 yond any thing that human ingenuity and power 

 can accomplish. But there are many other regions 

 in which things have not gone to such extremities, 

 where the introduction of sheep has been attended 

 with the happiest effects. Spain, Saxony, and Poland 

 are remarkable instances of this. Estremadura, the 

 province of Spain which borders upon Portugal from 

 the Tagus southward, is a country of a very dry and 

 sterile character ; and," as will be more particularly 

 noticed afterwards, that is the principal "run "for 

 the Merino sheep, whose wool has been so long and 

 so justly celebrated for the fineness of its staple. The 

 breeding of fine-woolled sheep in Saxony is a later 

 improvement ; but it is one which has been emi- 

 nently successful in those sandy places which had 

 well nigh ceased to be productive in any other way. 

 In Poland the advantages of the introduction of 

 these sheep have been still more remarkable. That 

 country was long famed for the production of corn ; 

 and those portions of it which are annually flooded 

 by the great rivers are still fertile. But their fer- 

 tility is kept up at the expense of the rest of the 

 country. Great part of Poland consists of very thin 

 soil over a substratum of sand and gravel. The rains 

 are very heavy upon it in the autumn, and the sum- 

 mer is very long. The soil is thus apt to be washed 

 off the heights ; and though there is a deposit on the 

 plains by the banks of the rivers, the whole country 

 suffers an unusual deterioration. This has been very 

 much increased in consequence of the drain of the 

 country by armies, which has reduced the number of 

 domestic animals far below what is required for an 

 agricultural country. So much was this the case 

 about the time of the close of the war, that hardly 

 any of the land could bear to pay rent, and not much 

 of it could be cultivated to any advantage. The 

 annexation of great part of Saxony to the kingdom of 

 Prussia, had the effect of causing many of the Saxons 



