86 IMPROVEMENT OW TUS BfiLEDB. 



of time, they became wild in the deserts.* Constant 

 attendance is, therefore, called for on the part of man, 

 to ensure that untroubled reliance on his care so con- 

 ducive to the welfare of the flock, for even on a tem- 

 porary cessation of his protection, those instincts, which 

 can be subdued but not eradicated, are brought into 

 operation, and their presence will go far to retard the 

 advancement of those qualities, on the perfection of 

 which a profit can alone be hoped for. 



(78.) Breeds required for Britain. — Of the nume- 

 rous breeds at present in our island, a few only are in- 

 dispensably necessary for the continuance of its pros- 

 perity. These stand, according to Marshall, thus : — 

 A very long-woolled sheep, as the Lincolnshire, or 

 Teeswater, for the richest grass lands, and finest wor- 

 sted manufactures — the New Leicester, for less fertile 

 grass land, and for rich enclosed arable land, on which 

 the fold is not used ; intended to supply coarser wor- 

 sted, stockings, coarse cloths, blankets, and carpets — 

 a middle-woolled breed, as the Wiltshire, the Norfolk, 

 or the Southdown, for arable lands on which folding is 

 practised, and for cloths of middle qualities — a fine- 

 wooUed, as the Ryeland, for the finest cloths ; and a 

 hardy race for heathy mountains. 



Some argue, and rightly, that only three breeds are 

 necessary for Scotland, inasmuch as only three are 

 required by the nature of the country. Scotland may 

 be regarded, in an agricultural point of view, as divided 

 into highland, upland, and pUin. The highland con* 



• f;d?n. Philosophical Journal 



