AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM. '©iT 



not conveniently be cut, and retailed in pieces. There 

 remains, then, but the manufacturer, the mechanic, and 

 the middle class of housekeepers, to. prefer coarse-grain- 

 ed meat. So \vc reasoned when we first sent this Rve- 

 land mutton to market; but these were the very peo- 

 pJe who greedily bought it at a penny per pound ad- 

 vance in price, and that too in a manufacturing-district. 

 But we are told, that sailors, colliers, and keeloicn, are 

 sure customers for these over-fat joints ; so Ibey are, 

 and long may they enjoy them ! Fresh meat is fresh meat 

 to a man coming from sea; but if he stays long in har- 

 bour, and were once to break pale, and get a taste of 

 better mutton, perhaps it would be no; easy matter to 

 bring him back again. 



We are told, too, that coarse fat mutton is best for salt- 

 ing; mutton is not at all well suited to this purpose ; beef 

 and pork take sadt better. If men are to be kept on salt 

 meat, be it so ; if they are to live on mutton, let that be 

 good in qaality. One of the first cutting butchers in 

 London has often been heg.rd to say, that he could not 

 afford to buy fat coarse-grained sheep; for that, besides 

 the loss in spine fat, which he was obliged to cut from 

 roasting joints, there was not lean enough to support the 

 fat, which therefore roasted away ; and that so long as 

 meat bears a better price than tallow, so long he must 

 deal in South Downs, and sheep of that description. 



In pursuance of tlie object stated in the commence- 

 ment of this Essay, the improvement of the fleece of our 

 Short-Woolled Sheep, the author, in the spring of 1802, 

 made a voyage to Spain, for the purpose of bringing 

 home aflock of Spanish sheep. This attemptis not easily 

 accomplished at any time, but is more than commonly 

 difficult in a time of war. It was an object, not only to 

 attain the sheep themselves, but the whole system of 

 management adopted by those who had the care of these 

 flocks in Spain. In both these particulars, the author 

 has been fortunate enough to succeed. The sheep were 

 selected from a Trashumantc, or travelling Merino 



