MANAGEMENT OF A MARSHLAND BREED. 169 



customary, and is a very old custom, to send the sheep on to the 

 uplands of Sussex, Surrey, and more distant counties, to winter 

 on pastures of an entirely different character. Many leave the 

 Marshes on September 1 and return on April 1. In fact, on those 

 dates the roads leaving Marshland and passing through the Weald 

 are alive with flocks in migration. Only a very light stocking is 

 left on the Marshes in winter. The Wealden soils are very variable, 

 but the winter grazings are by no means confined to the Weald. 

 Consequently, the influences of soil and climate, very different 

 to those experienced on the Marsh, are brought to bear on the 

 constitution of the animal ; so that the Romney, instead of being 

 a narrowly-bred breed, having the indigenous character of one 

 breed only, and being accustomed to only one narrow set of con- 

 ditions, inherits primarily the Marsh features, with some assistance 

 from the Leicester and Cheviot. It has been, through a very long 

 period, influenced by wintering on the uplands. The conditions 

 under which it lives are by no means easy at all times ; for though 

 the marsh grazings are excellent, the winterings are generally 

 done on hard fare, such hard fare as few big sheep would go through 

 successfully. The features and constitution inherited through 

 breeding and mode of living, befit the sheep to exist successfully 

 under hard and very varied conditions, and since breeders have 

 seriously and so successfully improved the type of their sheep, 

 an extraordinary demand has sprung up for this great meat 

 and mutton sheep. In the wet climate of New Zealand, in the 

 harsh winters of Southern Patagonia, which is almost Canadian 

 in its severity, and where the land is much covered with snow, 

 and where strong winds blow almost unceasingly, in the wet 

 humidity of the Falkland Islands, as well as in the more typically 

 sheep-raising countries, this composite breed is able to put up 

 a constitution which enables it to thrive as well as on its native 

 ground. It is significant that more narrowly bred longwools, which 

 were taken in hand earlier, and were brought to a high state of 

 excellence much sooner, and greatly influenced the sheep industry 

 of some of the great sheep-raising countries, are finding a very 

 strong competitor in this comparatively new breed in exportation. 

 From narrower breeding they do not so readily meet requirements 

 where meat has an increasingly valuable ratio to wool, whereas, 

 in these thinly -populated countries, before cold storage was avail- 

 able, the sheep had little value beyond the fleece. But as their 

 wool-bearing properties were undoubtedly great, and they carried 

 with them good constitutions, they exercised prepotency over other 

 breeds. They were well suited to dry countries, and it must not be 

 forgotten that they have profoundly influenced the sheep of the 

 great wool-growing countries of the world. They will still be 

 required to help in the work. 



