8 ON BREEDING AND HEARING ANIMALS. 



as increase the public stock of provisions, if they 

 would devote their attention to the rearing of 

 sheep, and fattening them on the same farm, as 

 Mr. Robinson has done, than by continuing to 

 indulge in the vanity of excelling their neigh- 

 bours, in raising large, raw, bony carcases, to be 

 crammed by others in distant districts ! 



In the production of wool, it is well known that 

 the climate, and natural produce and constitu- 

 tion of a farm, will of itself establish a medium 

 or proportion between the quantity and quality 

 of wool ; thus, it is found that the wool pro- 

 duced on one farm in Sussex, is of superior qua- 

 lity to that produced on another, even at a short 

 distance, although every means of changing 

 and crossing had been resorted to. Indeed, 

 what else could have established and naturalised 

 the beautiful breed of sheep called the South- 

 downs, and the valuable breed of Dorsets, or the 

 fine large long-wooled Leicesters, but that of the 

 breeders confining themselves to the assisting 

 nature, by selecting and pairing those animals 

 which were best adapted, in their local situation 

 and circumstances, to make the greatest return 

 in wool and mutton at the least expense ? 



If the farmers of the South-downs had conti- 

 nually crossed with the Leicesters, could they 

 have produced sheep equal to Leicestershire? 

 or the Leicestershire farmers, by crossing with 



