The Farm Livestock of the Period. 271 



of deteriorating the wool that during severe weather at any 

 time of the year they were driven into covered yards. 



Though all these practices probably came into Spain, like 

 the sheep itself, from England, it would not seem as if they 

 were at this later period considered requisite here ; at any 

 rate, most of them had long since died out. 



In the northern counties of England the sheep were salved 

 before shearing, and housed during stormy weather. Getting 

 also lingered on in Herefordshire up to this period ; and the 

 three-storied erections of Gloucestershire, into the upper com- 

 partments of which Camden describes the sheep as mounting 

 by means of inclined planes, had not long fallen into disuse. 

 But in other parts of the country these practices had been 

 discontinued, as it was found that the fleece, though lighter 

 by half a pound without its salve, fetched a better price at 

 the market,' and that " cotting " the flock in bad weather, 

 hke the custom of milking the ewes in summer, was not worth 

 the trouble. Indeed, we need not ascribe the superiority of 

 the Spanish wool to any neglect on the part of our English 

 flockmasters, who had from time immemorial been in pos- 

 session of all the best specifics for producing the most market- 

 able wool. Thus the writer, from whom we have quoted, 

 himself points out that the shawls of Shetland could hold 

 their own with even those from India, though no locality 

 bore a worse name for drawbacks of climate than that island. 



Again, though he imagines that the verdure of our Sussex 

 downs might be artificially enhanced by a judicious introduc- 

 tion of fresh graminiferous seeds, he at the same time does 

 not dispute its immense superiority as a pasturage over any- 

 thing to be found on the southern side of the Channel. It 

 was probably therefore owing partly to the dishonesty and 

 greed of the manufacturer, partly to the increased national 

 demands for corn, partly to the restrictive legislation of suc- 



' Bakewell used some composition, of which Sir Humphrey Davy so 

 far approved as to admit that it increased the flow of yolk, and thus 

 rendered the wool fine, though for preference he recommended " a little 

 soft soap with excess of grease." Vide Quarttrhj Review, vol. xi., 1814, 

 sub voc. " Davy's Agricultural Chemistry y 



