ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 45 



As every animal is supported through the me- 

 dium of the stomach, a wool-bearing animal has 

 two demands, to support wool and carcase ; 

 nor can either thrive further than nourishment is 

 afforded. Then how wrong to put large animals 

 upon a poor pasture, that produces but little 

 herbage, and that little, less nutritious ! 



Again, when they say it is easy to get a little 

 good one, if they mean by a good one, one 

 which will produce a son better than his sire, 

 and a third better than a second, and a fourth 

 better still ; that is what I shall call a good one. 

 If such a one is easily produced, do not the 

 hungry, poor, oppressed tenantry, the great 

 national family, in the name of all that is good, 

 call upon them to do it ? Why trifle with the 

 sacred wants and comforts of man ? 



Again, they say we cannot combine heavy 

 wool with a good carcase. I believe not with 

 long middles and high legs, or with whimsical 

 fanciful niceties. But to say they cannot be 

 combined upon any principle is wrong: expe- 

 rience has proved we can do it with sheep that 

 are calculated to live and thrive upon poor and 

 middling soils. 



I am convinced it would be a valuable acqui- 

 sition, if males to get stock were all bred upon 

 poor and middling soils, and treated as common 



