CHAPTER XXVII. 



IMPROVING WOOL AND MARKETING THE FLEECE. 



Improvements in (A) Mutton, (B) Wool, and (c) Mutton and Wool. 

 From the foregoing particulars it will be gathered that while the 

 mutton factor will be most frequently dominant, very occasionally 

 the wool factor attains to first position, while frequently both wool 

 and mutton may be developed together to marked advantage. 

 Perhaps the broadest view, even if strange, is nevertheless the 

 most illuminative way of looking at the problem and that is 

 to regard the sheep as an instrument, a machine, for turning grass 

 into flesh, hide and wool. Then it is evident that the product 

 from any given pasturage and sheep will depend upon (a) the 

 nature of the pasturage, and (6) the type of machine or rather 

 breed of sheep employed in the conversion. We should not 

 expect the heather moorlands of Yorkshire to produce the same 

 mutton and wool as the Downs of the Southern counties, or the 

 rich root -crop lands of East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. But 

 when we come to inquire closely into this matter, we find that 

 we cannot well dissociate the pasturage and the breed of sheep : 

 the interdependence one upon the other is so marked that any 

 independent differentiation seems hopeless. This is not altogether 

 so, however. Barren lands will only carry small sheep, but the 

 barren lands of Australia carry the small Merino sheep with its 

 fine wool, while the comparatively barren Yorkshire moorlands 

 carry the small Blackface sheep with its long, coarse wool. Again, 

 the richer lands may carry the large Lincoln sheep with its long 

 lustre wool, or the large Downs sheep with its short, crisp wool. 

 In other words, it seems as though breed of sheep was the command- 

 ing factor, and that whatever the type of land may be, it is possible 

 to obtain a breed of sheep which will produce both good mutton 

 and a useful wool. One of the most striking instances of this has 

 recently come to the writer's notice in the flocks of Mr. Elwes. 

 The Herdwick sheep produces the roughest of English wools, suitable 

 only for the low carpet trade. This sheep, crossed with the Shet- 

 land, produces a most wonderfully improved wool, with little or 

 no detriment to the mutton. The difference between the pure 

 Herdwick wool and the Shetland-Herdwick is so great that it is 



