54 ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 



animal might be bred upon, and are best suited 

 to, the worst soils, but not matured thereon. 



Qu. 5. Are they bred by measure, height, 

 and length, or upon what system are they bred ? 



Am. As to system, they are not philosophers 

 sufficient to know exactly how high the atmo- 

 spheric air will raise sheep to make them perfect ; 

 they know how many inches it will raise quick- 

 silver in a glass tube, but do not take that to 

 be a measure of perfection for sheep, so as to 

 render it necessary to take an exciseman's stick 

 when they want to engage a male. 



Qu. 6. Any thing particular in the form of 

 the face, the length of the ear, &c. ? 



Ans. This question reminds me of what a 

 nobleman's steward said some years ago ; he 

 went into a distant county to procure males, to 

 improve his master's flock at some future time. 

 Seeing some Northamptons pass the porter's 

 lodge, he asked where they came from; and when 

 he saw the person who bred them, he asked 

 him where he had the breed from. The steward 

 said, the breeders in a distant county told him 

 if he got such features, face, eyes, &c. he would 

 have every thing else accompanying it; but he said, 

 " I have the face, and you the every thing." 



The above letter is written in a stile bordering 

 on the ludicrous, yet it is evidently much to the 



