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Somersetshire, (next to the Galloway Scot fatted in Norfolk a 

 Suffolk) appear to bear the belle both in respect to firmness of gr 

 r.nd internal fatnefs; and there cannot be a stronger proof of theii 

 merit, than the increasing demand for them with the most eminent 

 graziers of Leicestershire,. Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, 8cc. many 

 of whom regularly attend the fairs both of Devon and Somerset, as 

 purchasers of them lean ; and I have been credibly informed they 

 find a good account in so doing. As to myself, it is with reluc- 

 tance that I hazard an opinion on this subject ; respecting which 

 men of long established experience are so much divided, and on 

 which such various opinions exist. But I cannot help remarking, 

 that if the superiority of tie northern sort were so conspicuous as 

 the great breeders of the North affirm, how is it that some of their 

 best friends and most strenuous supporters in the sheep line desert 

 them here, and give an unqualified preference to the western 

 breed. It is not likely that a wary and considerate farmer would 

 travel 150 or 200 miles to purchase stock, with all the manifold 

 inconveniencies and risque which must attend the driving so far, if 

 he could purchaseequally cheap and good at home. 



Nothing is more censurable than an injudicious partiality, and 

 this principle oft times leads men hastily to run away with ideas 

 unsupported by fact ; but when long experience and frequent trial 

 have produced conviction, a farmer would be equally inexcusable, 

 were he to resist the influence naturally produced in his mind 

 thereby. 



The red breed of Devon and Somerset have been progressively 

 increasing, and they are now partially difpersed over great part of 

 the kingdom, and in respect to their qualities as a laboring animal, 

 I never heard but one opinion, and that opinion I can myself con- 

 firm from large and long experience, namely, that they are the 

 bat in the kingdom. In respect to their qualities as a fatting animal, 

 I will not speak so decidedly, for I verily believe they have many 

 rivals ; the French, the Galloway Scot, the Leicester and Oxford- 

 shire, the Herefordshire, the Glamorganshire, the Suffolk polled, 

 are all good grazing cattle ; and in almost every county may be 

 found in the hands of the most spirited and attentive farmers, a 

 valuable sort highly superior to the general run of the county; and 

 I must again repeat : that the safest plan which a farmer can adopf, 



is 



