674 



SHEEP. 



which have to be taken into the account. Fine wool, 

 as is the case with all fine products, cannot be 

 obtained but at a considerable sacrifice. Though 



Merino sheep- 



pound for pound, the wool of these sheep is much 

 more valuable than ordinary wool, yet the fleeces are 

 very light, the animals delicate, and the flesh inferior 

 to that of many of the others ; so that, all things 

 considered, Merino sheep are by no means the very 

 best adapted for a highly advanced state of agricul- 

 ture. They would need the best of the land, but 

 they would not pay the rent that land fetches in 

 Britain. They, in fact, have their proper locality 

 where the country is in a sort of intermediate state 

 between absolute neglect and high cultivation. Be- 

 sides, in the rearing of sheep, though the wool is a 

 very valuable consideration, the mutton is far more so 

 t in all the more rich and valuable districts especially ; 

 and, generally speaking, in a country like Britain, 

 where the land, like all other means of wealth, is un- 

 derstood to be worked up to the maximum of profit 

 that it can yield. 



The management of sheep kept for the profit 

 which they yield, the points of excellence which dis- 

 tinguish the different breeds, and the whole details of 

 these most interesting and valuable animals as the 

 property of man, and one of the means that contribute 

 most largely to the wealth and comfort of society, 

 belong to rural economy rather than to natural his- 

 tory, even in the popular view of it. But still there 

 is something so pleasing about sheep to people of all 

 conditions, from infancy to hoary age, and there is 

 such a filling up of the different pictures of rural 

 innocence and enjoyment, by the appearance of the 

 flocks which we observe on the different pastures, 

 each so well adapted to that on which we observe it, 

 that even the short notice to which we are necessarily 

 restricted, in a work of so many subjects as the 

 BRITISH CYCLOPAEDIA, we cannot allow ourselves to 

 be altogether silent on the subject. No one who 

 has seen the beautiful contrast of the green meadows 

 and inclosures, with their snow-white sheep, in such 

 counties as Northampton and Leicester, can have 

 forgotten the soft luxury and repose which they indi- 

 cate no one who has caught the balmy breeze of 

 the spring upon the open downs of Sussex, and seen 

 the wide-spreading flocks nibbling the surface till it 

 emulates the softest velvet and no one who has seen 

 the dusky-faced tenants of the hill standing sturdily to 

 windward, and facing the storm, or the island sheep 



upon the wave-beaten cliff, bristling the array of 

 horns over the expanse of that ocean whoso tempered 

 and humid breezes maintain constant plenty on those 

 wild, and craggy places no one who has contem- 

 plated all or any of these scenes, can have forborne to 

 feel how tame such would be without its sheep. We 

 shall therefore cast a very momentary glance on the 

 leading breeds of BRITISH SHEEP and their adapta- 

 tions. 



The feeding-grounds for sheep in the island of 

 Great Britain, taking it in the whole extent of its 

 surface, and the utmost variety of its soil and climate, 

 may be reduced to four. These four are, of course, 

 merely averages, and the kinds of situation to which 

 they apply approximate each other on the confines, but 

 they will show the general principle of gradation that 

 runs through the whole. The four situations are : 

 First, the rich parks, inclosures, and meadows, which 

 alternate with the ground under tillage, and could 

 themselves be profitably turned to that purpose. 

 Secondly, the downs, or dry and rather elevated 

 commons, which have a much thinner soil than the 

 first, and could not yield an adequate return under 

 tillage unless some extraordinary circumstances caused 

 an unnatural demand for their produce. Thirdly, 

 the high and rugged mountains, on which cultivation 

 could not be profitable under almost any circum- 

 stances that could be imagined. Patches of these 

 are often much more rich than any that are to be 

 met with on the dry downs and commons ; but the 

 surface is more irregular and difficult, and the sheep 

 require to be of stronger build and more hardy con- 

 stitution. Fourthly, the small islands and rugged 

 peninsulas, chiefly in and toward the northern and 

 north-western seas. These are not subjected to such 

 alternations of heat and cold as some of the others, 

 but they require to be formed and fenced in such a 

 manner as to endure much rain and sleet, which arc 

 among the severest trials to which sheep can be sub- 

 jected. We shall find that the native, or, at all 

 events, the oldest breed in these last places, is that 

 which we have already noticed as occurring in the 

 extreme north from Siberia to Iceland, and which 

 was, in all probability, introduced into the remote 

 isles by the early Norwegians when they were lords 

 of the North Sea. The breeds of sheep adapted to 

 these localities, or which would be moulded by them, 

 if allowed to remain long enough in full exposure to 

 the climate, have differences pretty strongly marked. 

 If we take them according to their wool, and in the 

 order in which we have enumerated the different 

 pastures, they are long-woolled sheep, short-woolled 

 sheep, rough- woolled sheep, and mixed-woolled sheep. 



The characters of the bodies are : the long-woolled 

 ones large in the body, and generally high on the 

 legs ; but they cannot be fattened, or even kept in 

 good healthy condition, except upon rich pastures. 

 They are too heavy for the fatigue of the uplands, 

 and of all sheep they are the most quiet and gentle 

 in their dispositions, and the least prone to range 

 about. The short-woolled sheep are more compact 

 in the body, with shorter and cleaner legs ; they aro 

 much more easily fattened than the others j their 

 flesh is much superior in flavour to the long-woolled 

 sheep, and they are much more active and ranging, 

 so that they are by no means so well adapted for 

 farm-sheep in the meadows and enclosures, as they 

 are always attemping to break through the restraints ; 

 and, even if they do not succeed, the attempts irritate 



