AUGUST. 459 



(whatever the breed may be) rejects all that mani- 

 fest any departure from certain signs of the true 

 breed: thus, in a Norfolk flock, a white leg, and 

 a face not of a hue sufficiently dark, would 

 be excluded, however well formed: in the same 

 manner, a white face on the South Downs ; in 

 Wiltshire a black face would be an exclusion, or a 

 horn that does not fall back ; in Dorsetshire, a horn 

 that does not project, &c. &c.; and where the pro- 

 duce is annually sold lean, there is reason in all 

 this ; for customers wjio have been used to, and 

 prefer certain breeds, as having paid them well, 

 are apt to be fastidious when they purchase. Some 

 farmers, in this selection, look chiefly at size, al- 

 ways keeping the largest frames ; but this is pro- 

 bably erroneous, unless they keep very high. It 

 connects with a question by no means ascertained, 

 whether sheep do or do not eat a quantity of food 

 proportioned to their weight ? In general, it is a safer 

 rule to choose a well-formed lamb, or that indicates 

 the probability of making a well- formed ewe, ra- 

 ther than to select for size. The attention that is 

 to be paid to wool, in the breeds that produce the 

 carding sort, will depend on the price to be re- 

 ceived : if the farmer lives in a district where the 

 price of the year is given equally to all flocks, 

 there is little encouragement to lessen quantity fur 

 the sake of quality; retaining, however, in idea, 

 the fact that both are attainable, that it is very 

 common to see coarse breeched sheep with light 

 fleeces; and those of a fine quality heavy in 



weight. 



