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IMPROVEMENT OF THE BSEEDB. 



known to be of various qualities : some is composed of 

 large coarse grains, interspersed with wide empty pores, 

 like a sponge ; others of large grains, with wide pores 

 filled with fat ; others of fine close grains with smaller 

 pores filled with fat ; and a fourth of close grains with- 

 out any mixture of fatness. The flesh of sheep when 

 dressed is equally well known to possess a variety of 

 qualities : some mutton is coarse, dry, and insipid, — 

 a dry sponge affording little or no gravy of any colour. 

 Another sort is somewhat firmer, imparting a light-col- 

 oured gravy only. A third plump, short, and palatable, 

 affording a mixture of white and red gravy. A fourth 

 likewise plump, and well-flavoured, but discharging red 

 gravy only, and this in various quantities. It is like- 

 wise observable that some mutton, when dressed, appears 

 covered with a thick, tough, parchment-like integu- 

 ment ; others with a membrane comparatively fine and 

 flexible." This membrane ought to be rather thin than 

 thick, as, when of the latter texture, you may safely 

 affirm that the animal was aged. Looseness is reckon- 

 ed a bad quality of the flesh of sheep during life, as 

 indicating a coarse-grained porous mutton, and as 

 equally exceptionable with that of hardness : while 

 mellowness, and firmness, are much to be desired, as 

 forming a happy mixture, deemed by some the point of 

 perfection. The tendency to become fat at an early 

 age, though a valuable one in some points, is not so in 

 others. Premature decay is always the result, showing 

 with certainty that a healthy action has not been going 

 on. An animal when loaded with fat cannot be looked 

 upon otherwise than as in a diseased state, and liable to 

 embarassment of many organs, especially of the heart 



