100' AGRICULTtJRAL MU2hEUjM 



subject. § But it requires no remedy beyond that com- 

 mon caution practised b}'^ all the careful flock -masters o€ 

 South Britain, namely, without shutting up the ewes and 

 lambs in dose confined buildings, which are injurious, to 

 drive them into some sheltered homestead, out of the 

 reach of the cutting blasts of wintry winds and drifting 

 snows, which even in the southern parts of our island,, 

 make dreadful havoc where flocks have been left so ex- 

 posed. I know of no farmers more attentive to this 

 substantial good husbandry, than the farmers of the 

 South I>owns. In Spain the sheep arc carefully housed 

 during the night, or in cold raw weather, for some days 

 after shearing; they are sweated a day or two before 

 this operation, to make the wool part well from the body, 

 and, perhaps, to add something to the weight. If, in one 

 uniform temperature of chmate, this treatment is essen- 

 tial to the health df sheep, and beyond a doubt it is so ;• 

 howmuch more is it necessary in the variable and un- 

 certain climate of Great Britain ? Yet numbers of us 

 have never given a moment's thought, to what we may 

 suppose would be self-evident to men of any capacity 

 whatever; although we cannot command a temperate 

 or steady climate, much of its severity maybe counter- 

 acted by cheap and simple means. In the mountainous 

 or hilly districts, essential benefit to the wool may be de- 

 rived from attention to aspect and elevetion, as well as 

 soil ; and where this attention has been paid, wool is of a 

 superior quality It is also familiar to every farmer 

 whatever, that the value of the carcass is much infinen- 

 ced by an attention to this circumstance : by stocking 

 the higher ground in summer, where fresh air maybe 

 found ; and low, well sheltered lands, lying to the south, 



§ N»tur« seonn to have (juarJed with peculiar care this race, as if conscious of the value of what 

 in h«r bouDty she was givinR to man ; f >r, strange as it may appear, it is no le^s true, that wheQ 

 they are first dropped, the lambs aie covered with a Iodr down or hair, which, in the period of a 

 month, falls off, andis a sure pro^ostie of the finest quality of wool. Whether this exCTanrdinary 

 covriog is thicker, or more frequently found in cold cliaiates than in warmer ones ; or whether it 

 classes tliem tlius next in ^adation to the Laaa, or (llose other animals which, under a hairy co- 

 vering, carry thatdowDy wgolsu ccleb(ated ia A:i2, ij a fjcs.'ioD rattier lot c^c uttfisX.ist thiin i^a 

 tnubaaduaa. 



