ON SOILS. 13 



such lands sometimes affect the sheep injuriously, producing dis- 

 ease under which they waste away, become watery about the eyes, 

 fall in about the flanks, and assume a generally unhealthy appear- 

 ance. Upon removal to a limestone, or a dry sandstone soil, sheep 

 thus affected, improve at once and rapidly recover. The lambs, 

 as might be expected, are most easily affected, and many are yearly 

 lost by early death upon lands of an unfavorable character. As 

 a rule, lands upon which granite, feldspathic or micaceous rocks 

 intrude, or whose soils are derived from the degradation of such 

 rocks, should be avoided by the shepherd. Such soils are, however, 

 not without their uses, and fortunately are excellently adapted to 

 the dairy. The soils most to be preferred are sandstone and lime- 

 stone lands, of a free, dry, porous character, upon which the finer 

 grasses flourish. The soils which are derived from rocks called 

 carboniferous, which accompany coal deposits, or are found in the 

 regions in which coal is mined, are those upon which sheep have 

 been bred with the most success. The original home of the Lei- 

 cester sheep, as well as that of the famous Shropshires, is on the red 

 sandstone ; the Lincoln is raised on the alluvial soils based on 

 limestone ; the Cotswold has had its home for centuries on the 

 limestone Cotswold hills ; the Southdown, Hampshiredown, and 

 Oxforddowns, are native to the chalk hills and downs of southern 

 England ; the Scotch Cheviot and the hardy black-faced Scotch 

 sheep thrive on sandstone hills and mountains of trap rocks which 

 rise amongst them ; the fine wools of Yorkshire are produced on 

 magnesian limestone soils ; and to come to our own soils, we find 

 the American Merino reaching perfection on the limestone hills of 

 Vermont, beneath which fine marbles are quarried. Unfortu- 

 nately this is the only instance we possess of having given a local 

 habitation to a race of sheep in America ; but how soon we shall 

 have produced or acclimated several breeds of sheep, which will 

 take their peculiarities from the locality in which they are bred 

 and raised, is only a question of time. Peat or marsh lands are 

 unfavorable for sheep farms. Salt marshes near the coast, how- 

 ever, may be excepted from this general condemnation, as the 

 saline herbage acts as a specific against some of the parasitic dis- 

 eases the liver-rot mainly to which sheep are subject upon 

 marshy pastures. The Romney-marsh sheep of England are bred 

 successfully upon the alluvial soils of reclaimed marshes, and pro- 

 duce good wool and a heavy carcass. The gigantic Lincoln, the 

 largest sheep bred, originated and thrives in perfection upon 

 drained alluvial soils. 

 The dry, friable nature and porous character of the soil has as 



