THE INFLUENCE OF THE BREED-MAKER. 17 



market requirements. This view has already been gripped by 

 farmers, and considerable changes have taken place in recent 

 years. Whether the land will go into far more general small- 

 holding occupation is not assured yet. Legislation may do all 

 it can, and men may be tempted to acquire small holdings, but 

 whether they will be induced to remain there is quite another 

 question, which will not be solved until agriculture in the ordinary 

 evolutions from prosperity to depression which come from time 

 to time, meets with a period of bad times. If they stand through 

 a long period of bad times they are likely to be permanent, but 

 the past has revealed much that suggests that many would flee 

 from the land. 



In a small-holding community sheep have a small place ; the 

 future of sheep farming hangs much on what occurs then. It 

 is best to assume that the conditions of farming will not greatly 

 alter, and to proceed with sheep improvement as though it will 

 not. It will be a poor day in British agriculture when conditions 

 compel a large diminution in the head of sheep carried. Sheep 

 have made and marked its progress, and still are mainly responsible 

 for its steady success. 



Where the change in sheep farming, in respect to the distribution 

 of breeds has been most shown is in the less servile adherence 

 to preconceived ideas. Far too much stress has been laid on 

 the want of wisdom in trying the usefulness of other breeds than 

 those hitherto kept in a district. That injudicious introductions 

 have been made through not paying attention to conditions and 

 circumstances, cannot be denied, but too much capital has been 

 made out of this by those who have wished to get credit for sage 

 counsel. To look before you leap, and to make trial before you 

 embark heavily in a strange breed are equally sound advice ; 

 but one is allowed to look and to make trial ; though many, very 

 many, have feared to make trial because the unwisdom of change 

 has been so generally taught. In the more businesslike enterprise 

 of to-day, however, such advice does not go unchallenged, and 

 breeds foreign to many districts are ousting those which have 

 long been regarded as permanent fixtures. Breeds are moved to 

 new districts to be kept as pure types or for crossing. English 

 sheep go to Scotland, and Scotch sheep come to England. The 

 black-faced mountain breed of Scotland returns to the lowlands 

 from which it migrated as a heath breed long ago. Outside some 

 districts it is little recognised how great is the migration of Scotch 

 sheep to permanent occupation in England. Probably, however, 

 the greatest influence on English sheep breeding it had a big 

 one in Scotland before is the Cheviot. The Cheviot seems likely 

 within the course of a few years to have as great an influence 

 on English breeds as the Southdown has had. If ever a breed 



