14- The ShepherdiP Guide, 



provement to both ; and although he ought not un- 

 necessarily to be exposed to it, he bears cold and 

 wet better than most other sheep ; which superi- 

 ority he probably owes to the closeness and oili- 

 ness of his fleece. He bears to be folded on fal- 

 low grounds with a view to their enrichment, as 

 vrell, if not better than the most hardy sheep in En- 

 gland. But as this practice is only robbing one field 

 to enrich another, and on the whole is rather con- 

 venient than profitable ; and as it is confessed 

 to be ahvays more or less injurious to the sheep ; 

 while Merinos continue so valuable, a judicious 

 farmer will hardly put them to such severe duty : 

 but will be content with the manure which a well- 

 littered v/inter fold will furnish, and with that 

 constant and evident amelioration which they 

 give to the lands on which they are pastured in 

 the summer. 



His mutton is peculiarly excellent. On this point 

 Lord Somerville remarks, that ** the quality of the 

 flesh in each class of sheep follows the character 

 of the wool ; that of the short-wooUed sheep being 

 close in the grain, heavy in the scale, and high fla- 

 voured ; that of long-wooUed sheep more open and 

 loose in grain, and large in size ; manufactures 

 mutton, fit for such markets as supply shipping and 

 collieries :" and Sir Joseph Banks states, that the 

 London butchers who had bought some of the 

 fatted Merinos from the King of England's flock, 



