214 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



hind-quarters and saddle constitute a luxury for the rich, and 

 the fore-quarters supply the poor with food at the most reason- 

 able prices. In order to meet the demand which exists there, 

 great care has been taken in the selection of animals for breed- . 

 ing purposes, and Mr. John Ellntan, with his South Downs, and 

 Mr. Bake well and Mr. Cully, with their Leicesters, are looked 

 upon as the benefactors of England ; while every farmer who 

 cultivates his turnips and improves his pastures, for the feeding 

 of slieep, finds that his labor meets with ample reward. 



The soil and climate and agricultural system of England are 

 admirably adapted to this business. The mild and humid 

 atmosphere, and the equability of the temperature, encourage 

 the growth of the animal and enable it to arrive at early 

 maturity ; at the same time the fleece has a tendency to 

 increase in length and coarseness. The luxuriant pastures, 

 also, afford suitable food for animals whose heavy carcasses 

 require abundant nourishment. The ease with which root 

 crops, especially turnips, are raised on English soil, combined 

 with the possibihty of feeding such crops on the land, during 

 the mild winters of that island" enables the English farmer to 

 support his sheep with great economy during the cold season. 

 All this produces a sheep, which, when brought to the stall, is 

 in a condition to take on fat rapidly, and to remunerate the 

 feeder. 



It is not surprising that the same system of husbandry, which 

 developed and required short horns and horned cattle, should 

 also develop and require Leicester, Cotswolds, Oxford Downs, 

 Shropshires and South Downs, among sheep, of the first of 

 whicWthe Leicester), Mr. Webster says : " They must be kept 

 well ; they should always be fat ; and pressed, by good keeping, 

 to early maturity, they are found very profitable." When we 

 read of Leicesters weighing from thirty to forty pounds to the 

 quarter, at two years old, of Cotswolds weighing nearly 400 

 pounds, of New Oxfordshire ewes weighing over 200 pounds, 

 of Oxford Downs weighing 360 pounds, we should bear in 

 mind that these animals have received English feeding, mostly 

 on English soil, and under an English sky. It is not impossible 

 to do this in our own State, and our own county, as the Cots- 

 wolds exhibited by Mr. Corliss, and the Oxford Downs exhib- 

 ited by Mr. Fay will testify. 



