SHEEP. 



669 



to sell their lands and migrate to Poland, where they 

 have carried on, upon a very large scale, the same 

 sort of sheep farming which had previously been so 

 successful in Saxony, and by this means the country 

 is in a state of improvement equally certain and rapid. 

 Places which, not long ago were plantless, or covered 

 with the most noxious and unprofitable weeds, have 

 come into grass under the pasturage of the sheep ; 

 and if changed circumstances should again render it 

 desirable that the breadth of Poland should be a corn 

 country, the pasturage of the sheep is preparing it 

 for being so, and at the same time the present profit 

 to the occupiers is far greater and more easily brought 

 to market than the produce they would have obtained 

 by any other means. Soil which is best adapted for 

 sheep pasture is also well adapted for the culture of 

 turnips and potatoes ; and the introduction of the 

 latter especially has been of vast advantage to all the 

 dry and sandy countries southward of the Baltic. 

 Where the land is favourable to their growth, pota- 

 toes yield more food from one acre of land than rye, 

 which was the staple domestic bread of the] people 

 of these countries, yields from ten acres ; and thus 

 there is a greater supply of vegetable food along with 

 the sheep-walk, and the mutton remains for con- 

 sumption in the country, which is a luxury that com- 

 paratively few under the old system could command. 

 We have felt it necessary to make these few ob- 

 servations on the national advantages that result from 

 the cultivation of sheep, because the subject is in 

 itself highly important ; and because in many parts 

 of our country, the love of practices merely because 

 they are old, however bad they are, has caused a 

 prejudice against it. No doubt the throwing of large 

 tracts of hill-country into sheep-walk, has rendered 

 it necessary to remove the cottagers, whose dwell- 

 ings at one time spotted the wilderness. But, how 

 much soever the tenants of these miserable abodes 

 might be devoted to the ground upon which they 

 were born, and how dear soever the customs of their 

 fathers may have been to them, in the judgment of 

 reason they were out of place for the general advan- 

 tage of the country, and still more for their own 

 personal advantage. No matter what the prejudice 

 is by which the general good is retarded, for it is 

 equally worthy of removal be what it may ; and 

 though the removing of it may in many cases require 

 no small degree of delicacy, yet that should not pre- 

 vent it from being undertaken. We shall probably 

 have occasion to advert to one or two circumstances 

 which show the value of sheep, when we come to 

 speak of the several breeds, which we shall do in as 

 few words as possible. 



DOMESTIC SHEEP (O. aries). Whether the many 

 varieties of domesticated sheep which are found in 

 various countries^ or in the same country, are de- 

 scended from the wild runs now found in the hills, or 

 from a race which has now become extinct, is a ques- 

 tion which cannot be solved, neither would the solu- 

 tion of it be of very much importance. It is probable 

 that there have been originally two races, one with 

 the tails long and the other with them short; but 

 neither this, nor indeed any thing to which we can at 

 present refer in wild nature, can determine the ques- 

 tion of origin. The variations which climate and 

 culture seem to have produced on sheep appear in 

 different parts of their bodies. In some the horns are 

 diminished, in others they are increased, and even 

 multiplied in number. In some again the coarse hair 



which forms what may be called the outer clothing, 

 wholly disappears, and leaves the whole body with 

 only a soft and woolly fleece ; while in others the 

 coarse hair remains in greater or smaller quantity along 

 with the wool. It does not appear, however, that the 

 loss or the retention of the coarse hair has any very 

 great effect upon the staple of the wool ; for some of 

 the finest woolled sheep, as for instance the old Shet- 

 land breed, have coarse hair and very soft wool under 

 it. It seems a tolerably well-established law, however, 

 that in humid climates sheep have a tendency to pro- 

 duce the rough hairs ; that the wool is long in cold 

 and exposed climates, where the sheep have to range 

 much in search of their food, while on low and rich 

 pastures the wool is much shorter. The form of the 

 head, the size of the tail and various other characters, 

 are altered by differences of breed and of pasture ; 

 but the causes of these are all very imperfectly 

 made out. 



There is one circumstance connected with this topic 

 which it is important to attend to, and that is, the qua- 

 lity of the flesh, as connected with the character of 

 the pasture. Sheep grow to a much larger size, and 

 accumulate much more fat, upon rich pastures, where 

 they have comparatively little labour. But this, 

 though, in so far as quantity is concerned, the profit- 

 able state of the animal, is by no means the healthy 

 and profitable one ; and it is doubtful whether it is, 

 on the whole, the most economical. As provisions of 

 all kinds are valued and sold by weight, it is the 

 interest of the grower to obtain, in all cases, as great 

 a weight as possible ; and, in order to obtain this, 

 there is often a very great sacrifice of the quality. 

 Quality, especially in such an article as mutton, if it 

 be brought to market in a wholesome state, is very 

 much a matter of taste, or, in other words, it is one 

 which cannot be' decided arithmetically, as pounds 

 and ounces can be decided ; and for this reason it is 

 apt to be overlooked, or, at all events, to meet 

 with less attention than it really deserves. From 

 the superior flavour of wild animals above those 

 which are tame, except in those cases where the 

 flavour of the wild ones is too high, we may infer, 

 that the nearer the condition in domestication is to 

 that which it inhabits in free nature, the better must 

 be the quality of the flesh. This is well established 

 in the case of the sheep of our own country, where 

 the mutton from the hills of Wales and Scotland, and 

 also of the dry downs in the south of England, is 

 vastly superior in flavour, more digestible and whole- 

 some, than that of the large sheep of the low-lying 

 pastures and midland counties. These are, there- 

 fore, clearly the places in which sheep ought to be 

 bred with a view to their perfection as an article of 

 human food. 



Ought we, then, to abandon the flocks which look 

 so well, and are so productive, in the rich and dry 

 meadows ? Assuredly not. But it is equally true 

 that the flavour of the flesh cannot be retained if the 

 sheep are bred "iu and in," for a long time, upon 

 these rich pastures. To breed in the uplands, and 

 fatten on the plains, is a good rule in the case both 

 of sheep and of cattle. Nor does it appear to be 

 necessary that the animal should continue for a very 

 long time on the upland. The quality, both of animal 

 and vegetable substances, is determined from the 

 beginning, or, at least, at a very early stage of exist- 

 ence ; and, if it is transferred from the one pasture to 

 the other while young, the quality of the upland, and 



