THE NEW RYELAND SHEEP. 45 



thought of cleaning out the place while there was room for 

 the sheep to go in and out. 



The reasons generally assigned for this practice of cotting 

 were that the wool, being preserved from the weather, was 

 kept sounder and finer ; that the sheep were preserved in 

 better health ; that they were preserved from liver rot ; that 

 fewer lambs were lost in yeaning; that great losses were 

 always experienced when the sheep were folded in the open 

 field ; and that much valuable dung was accumulated by the 

 practice. The system of cotting has now been entirely dis- 

 continued in Great Britain, but those who have visited the 

 Merino flocks of Southern Europe will remember the care 

 which is taken to house the flocks, not only in winter, but in 

 wet weather the object being the growth of fine wool. It is 

 also well known that rye and barley straw produce a finer 

 wool than can be grown on a fuller diet of roots and cake. 

 England is now well supplied with the finer descriptions 

 of wool from her colonies, while the production of mutton 

 has become a much more important consideration with flock- 

 masters. The strength of the position of sheep, as a farm 

 stock, also rests upon the fact that they trample and render 

 firm our light lands, and at the same time manure them in 

 an economical manner without the aid of the dung cart. The 

 system was, therefore, early doomed, with all its supposed 

 advantages, some of which still carry a lesson. It seems, for 

 example, to have been noticed that ewes and lambs were less 

 subject to mortality during the critical period of lambing, and 

 this fact may well be taken to heart by sheep breeders. 

 Without returning to the old system of cotting, it may be 

 useful to remember that ewes and young lambs require more 

 shelter and succour than they are usually allowed. 



THE NEW RYELAND SHEEP. 



The Ryeland breed of sheep is now again in the ascendant, 

 but in a modified form. There is little doubt that the change 



