l c 36.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



581 



afterwards the grubs are hatched, and feeding 

 u]ton the cheese cause it to deca] : the powder 



which we perceive, and which is so highly prized 

 by the gourmand, being nothing else but the ex- 

 crement of these griibs, which, when they have 

 attained their full size, desert the cheese, and in 

 three or four days they loose all molion, grow stiff, 

 become hard, and contract their bodies into an 

 oval mass not more than half their previous length, 

 within which the real pupa is inclosed; this insect 

 undergoing the coarctate kind of metamorj 

 like the majority of tv\ o-winged insects. Alter re- 

 maining some time in this state, the chrysalis be- 

 comes of a black color, and the enclosed nymph 

 breaks that part ol* the outer covering which de- 

 fends its head into two parts, and at the same 

 time throws off Irom every part of the body a thin 

 and slight membrane which it leaves within the 

 old case. At first the wings are scarcely per- 

 ceivable, the insect however, runs abroad very 

 quickly, and shortly afterwards the wings are by 

 degrees extended into full length, when the in- 

 sect is fitted for pursuing its duties, which almost 

 entirely consist in the reproduction of the species. 

 The fly is about the size of the grub, of a shining 

 blackish green color, the wings transparent and 

 shining, and the legs varied with ochreous and 

 black. 



From tlie Ia«t. London edition of the "Complete Grazier." 



OX THE BREEDING, REAUIXG, AND FATTEN- 

 ING OF SHEEP. 



On the improvement of British wool. 

 [Concluded from p. 523 Vol. III.] 



In describing the fleeces of this country, Mr. 

 Luccock disposes them in two classes — the com- 

 bing, and the carding wool — which are mutually 

 distinguished by the length of the staple and the 

 mode of manufacturing them; the one being suit- 

 ed to the fabrication of worsteds, and the other to 

 the making of woollen goods. The sheep from 

 which these different kinds of staple are obtained, 

 do not run promiscuously in the same flock, or 

 graze upon the same pastures; each being most 

 commonly found upon its appropriated soil, and 

 under a peculiar management. The line which ge- 

 nerally separates them is boldly drawn; though in 

 some lew instances the pastures are so mingled, 

 or the qualities of the land so gradually change 

 from those which are suitable to the heavier 

 sheep, as to give the stock a sort of mongrel ap- 

 pearance, and the fleece an uncertain character. 

 But human genius, always fertile in expedients, 

 has rendered even this defect of the fleece ad- 

 vantageous to the interest of society; and has 

 adapted to it the manufacture of stockings. 



Thus, although long wool is found in many de- 

 tached parts of England, it is much more com- 

 mon on the eastern than on the western side, and 

 often nearer to the coast, than the middle of the 

 kingdom. Sometimes it is produced upon a few 

 acres which are surrounded by land of a different 

 description, and grazed by sheep of another char- 

 acter; these tracts, being too small to deserve gen- 

 eral attention, will be passed unnoticed, and the 

 wool included in the common produce of the dis- 

 trict where it grows. Among the larger ranges 

 of long-woolled sheep, the first to be noticed, and 

 the most northern, is situated near the mouth of 



the Tecs, a river separating the bishopric of Dur- 

 ham from the. county of York. The second, 

 which may properly be denominated the Lincoln 

 district, comprehends the south-easier:: point of 

 the whole of Lincolnshire, and 

 the fen lands of Huntingdon, Cambridge, and 

 Norfolk. This kind of wool is found in the smaller 

 . and Kent which surround the 

 inlets of the sea, bul is much more abundant in 

 those of Rom >ey and of Pevensey. We meet 

 with it in the counties of Dorset, Devon, and 

 Cornwall, upon the Cotswold-hills, in some de- 

 tached parts of Lancashire, Oxford, Bedford, and 

 Stafford, through the whole of Leicester, Rutland, 

 Norlham id Huntingdon, and long the 



banks of the larger rivers. 



But it is remarked by Mr. Luccock, that the 

 short wools of the kingdom do not arrange them- 

 selves so distinctly in districts as those of a longer 

 staple do, but fill up the whole space besides that 

 which has been noticed as the pasture of the hea- 

 vier breeds of sheep. Those families which pro- 

 duce a fleece suitable to the card, though original- 

 ly possessing features much more strongly charac- 

 teristic than are found in the other kind, are some- 

 times so mingled with each other, and with the 

 sheep of the larger fleece, as to render it difficult 

 to determine what particular race many of the in- 

 dividuals belong to. Yet it will be found most 

 convenient to describe them in classes, and to pro- 

 ceed from that county where the species appears 

 most pure, to those where its blood becomes inti- 

 mately mingled with that of another variety. We 

 know not the period when any of these sheep were 

 introduced into the country, nor whence they were 

 procured, but there remain at present in England 

 and Wales, six different kinds of them, viz. the 

 Norfolk, the South Down, the Wiltshire, the Rye- 

 land, the Heath sheep, and the Mountaineer; be- 

 sides some small collections of different varieties, 

 which seem to have descended from families now 

 almost extinct.* 



Only two modes, says Mr. Luccock, have yet 

 been adopted for the improvement of fleeces. 

 "One consists in selecting those lambs for slaugh- 

 ter which have the least valuable coat; the other 

 in bringing into the flock male sheep of the most 

 approved breeds, in order that, their progeny may 

 perpetuate their best peculiarities. "t It is in fact 

 by the judicious crossing of different breeds with 

 Spanish sheep, that so much has been done to- 

 wards the amelioration of British wool, and, since 

 this subject has been very ably treated by a neigh- 

 boring practical writer, J we have selected the fol- 

 lowing important principles, founded on actual ex- 

 perience, for the consideration of all wool growers. 

 They refer, indeed, solely to the improvement of 

 short, or carding wool; but the judicious breeder 

 will readily perceive that they may be equally ap- 

 plied to long-woolled sheep; and a consideration 

 of the facts already recorded must evince the 

 strong probabiIity,that the latter breed will hence- 

 forward command superior attention. 



1. Every person, who is desirous of having a 



* Treatise on wool, p. 137. 



t Ibid. p. 350. 



| Mr. Fink's Treatise on the "rearing of sheep in 

 Germany, and the improvement of coarse wool," pub- 

 I lished (in German) at Halle, 1799. 



