1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



151 



these sheep have been found more valuable than 

 some which, in more favored situations, might be 

 considered superior; and although they have been 

 superseded in some instances, yet they still main- 

 tain their ground on the bleak hills of the north, 

 many of which, indeed, would, be wholly unpro- 

 ductive to the farmer under any other stock: their 

 flesh is highly flavored; and when lattened on the 

 lowland pastures, they make excellent mutton. 

 There is another moorland breed, of an unmixed 

 race, existing on the Yorkshire wolds, which dif- 

 fers from the former, in having the face and legs 

 white, with a thin flat, carcass; but in point of 

 hardiness of constitution, and the characteristic 

 distinction of large horns, it is nearly similar. 

 Both range over the heathy mountains in the. 

 summer, without any attending shepherd; and, on 

 the approach of winter, they are brought nearer 

 to the enclosed grounds, that hay may be given to 

 them during deep snows, and also that they may 

 be prepared for the severity of the season, by be- 

 ing salved: an operation which will be hereafter 

 more particularly described. 



The other horned breeds of English sheep 

 are — 



II. The Exrnoor and the Dartmoor, which de- 

 rive their names from the districts in the northern 

 and western parts of Devonshire, where they are 

 chiefly found. They are long-woolled, with white 

 legs and faces, and are delicately formed about 

 the head and neck; they make very finely flavor- 

 ed mutton; and arrive, when fatted, at two and a 

 half to three years old, to fourteen and sixteen 

 pounds weight per quarter. 



The country in which they are reared, is gene- 

 rally over-charged with water, after the autumnal 

 rains, yet this breed sustains the chill of the wet 

 ground even in the infant state, without becoming 

 subject to the rot, which has proved fatal to some 

 other species that have been attempted to be in- 

 troduced, and even to crosses. Their summer 

 pasture is scanty, and their winter food consists 

 chiefly in what they can pick up, in ranging over 

 extensive tracts of pasturage, with the assistance, 

 in the severity of extremely bad weather, of a lit- 

 tle indifferent hay, made from the coarse herbage 

 of the moors; and perhaps occasionally with a 

 small supply of turnips, which are sometimes cul- 

 tivated, but which, from the wetness of the land, 

 they are often prevented from resorting to when 

 most wanted. From this superior hardiness of 

 constitution, and more especially from their power 

 of resisting wet, which is generally so injurious 

 to sheep, nature has evidently adapted them to 

 the soil; it is not, therefore, to be much wonder- 

 ed at, that the attempts made to improve them by 

 crosses with more tender breeds, have not been 

 attended with all the success that was expected. \ 

 A cross with the old Leicester sheep has, indeed, 

 increased the weight to twenty-four pounds per 

 quarter; and another, with the Spanish merinos, 

 has improved the quality of the wool; but the 

 foot-rot and the scour have in both instances made 

 great ravages; and until some effectual system of 

 drainage be adopted, by which the pastures may 

 be rendered dry, and shelter be provided by enclo- 

 sures, the most rational hope of improvement 

 must rest upon increased attention to the native 

 race.* 



338. 



See the Agricultural Survey of Devonshire, p. 



III. The Norfolk Breed is indigenous in the 

 counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The horns are 

 large and spiral; bodies long; loins narrow, with 

 a high back and thin chine; the legs long, black, 

 or gray; of a roving, wild disposition, and not 

 easily confined within any but strong enclosures. 

 The wool of the original breed was short, the 

 fleece weighing from two to two and a halt pounds; 

 but within the last twenty years, in consequence 

 of crosses and new modes of feeding, the weight 

 has been increased full a pound, and the greater 

 part is now used for combing purposes.* The 

 carcass has been proportionally increased; and 

 though the mutton has not been thereby improved, 

 it yet is well flavored, and of a fine grain, but only 

 fit for consumption in cold weather. 



The agile form of these sheep, enabling them 

 to move, over a great space of ground with little 

 labor, was of vast advantage to the old Norfolk 

 farmers, many of whom were possessed of large 

 tracts of heath-land, which they had no means of 

 bringing into cultivation, except by the assistance 

 of the fold. Mr. Marshall characterizes them, in 

 his account of the Norfolk husbandry, as being 

 singularly well adapted to the soil and system of 

 management prevalent in that country: thriving 

 upon heath and barren sheep-walks, where nine- 

 tenths of the breeds in the kingdom would starve; 

 standing the fold perfectly well, yet fatting freely 

 at two years old, and bearing the drift to distant 

 markets with comparative ease. Mr. Kent has 

 been equally warm in their praise in his survey of 

 the same county; yet notwithstanding these strong 

 testimonials in their favor, they have long been 

 giving way to the more fashionable Southdown 

 breed, which has now taken possession of nearly 

 all, except the most barren and sandy districts of 

 the county.f 



IV. The Wiltshire Breed are distinguished by 

 large spiral horns bending downwards, close to the 

 head; they are perfectly Avhite in their faces and 

 legs; have long Roman noses, with large open 

 nostrils; are wide and heavy in their hind quar- 

 ters, and light in the fore-quarter and offal, but 

 with little or no wool on their bellies. The qual- 

 ity of the fleece is that of clothing wool of mode- 

 rate fineness, averaging nearly three pounds in 

 weight; and the carcasses of the wethers, when 

 fat, usually weigh from 70 lbs. to 90 lbs.: the mut- 

 ton good: they sometimes, however, reach much 

 higher, and may be considered as our largest 

 breed of fine-woolled sheep. 



The county of Wilts, being in great part com- 

 posed of downland, the same necessity exists 

 there, as upon other light soils, of maintaining 

 large flocks of hardy constitutioned sheep for the 

 purpose of folding; to which the old stock of the 

 country was well adapted. But the improvements 

 in the modern system of agriculture, by the intro- 

 duction of green crops instead of fallows upon 

 light land, having enabled the farmers to supply 

 their flocks with better winter food than the bare 

 pastures on which they were previously kept, the 



* Evidence before a Committee of the House of 

 Lords on the wool trade, in 1828. Printed report, p. 

 129. 



f Agricultural Survey of Norfolk, by the Secretary 

 to the Board; Kent's ditto; and Evidence of Mr. Fison 

 before a Committee of the House of Lords, on the Bri- 

 tish wool trade, 1828, p. 194. 



