THE 



AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM* 



OMNIS FERET OMNIA TELLUlS. VIRGf. 



Vol. L] Georgetown, Ca. Oct 24, 1810. [No. 9. 



Extract from Lord Somerville^s Essay on Sheep. 

 Continued from page 122. 



The principle on which Sir Lawrence Palk conducts 

 his sheep husbandry, needs only to be recorded ; it 

 wiil speak for itself. Part of his estate is rich land, im- 

 proved by water (which heretofore ran to waste,) and 

 lies low in the vale of Exeter: the rest borders upon 

 Haldown. Instead of stocking the whole with the hea- 

 vy bodied sheep of the country, which either must have 

 been stocked so thin per acre as to pay nothing, or have 

 dwindled in size, or have been starved, the estate now 

 can-ies 500 breeding ewes ; on the lower, 200 of the 

 new Leicester blood, and on the upper part, 300 Rye- 

 lands, the produce of which have a large portion of the 

 Merino blood. 



As the winter advances, and the heavy bodied sheep 

 go into turnips, the Ryelands are brought down to run 

 after and clean up the layer, by which they get well 

 wintered ; and as the summer approaches, they return 

 to the high lands, and work in the fold. 



If any man can devise a system, which, under sucli 

 circumstances, will pay more in good produce per acre, 

 let him suggest it ; his information will be thankfully 

 received. But it will be urged. Why is it that these men 

 should do more than we do ? Why do vvc not draw from 

 our management as much for the public supply ? Be- 

 cause you are tied down and fettered by old prejudices, 

 adverse to your interest; and because they, profiting by 

 a more extended education, reason on a greater scale, 

 and act on principles more consistent with nature and 



16 



