SHEEP. 361 



head of full-grown cattle, and for which that number was suf- 

 ficient, would carry twenty sheep besides, without detriment to 

 the cattle, and with positive benefit to the pasture. However 

 this may be, it is conceded on all hands that a small flock of 

 sheep are as pro Citable as any stock a farmer can keep. Admit 

 this to be so, and it is easy to make them far more profitable. 



We have had heretofore, witlTvery few exceptions, what are 

 termed the old-fashioned breed of sheep — which is no breed at 

 alb or rather a mongrel intermingling of several breeds, some 

 with long wool, more with short wool, others between long and 

 short, but all of them deficient in what is most and perma- 

 nently profitable — to wit, weight of carcass. The raising- of 

 sheep for their wool mainly, or exclusively, must be left to dis- 

 tricts of country where pasturage abounds, and which are 

 remote from markets. With us the carcass is to be looked to 

 rather than the (leece. This deficiency of carcass can be en- 

 tirely remedied with very little trouble or expense. Sheep of 

 improved breeds, introduced from England by men of ample 

 means and enlarged views, have become so numerous that any 

 farmer can improve his Hock almost without money — certainly 

 at a very moderate price. The Leicesters and South Downs 

 or grade animals largely impregnated with their respective 

 blood, can be obtained any where, and any of them would give 

 increased value to the progeny of our ordinary sheep. The 

 Leicesters have long headed the list of English sheep ; but 

 recently either some of the less aristocratic families have 

 stolen a march upon them, or the taste of John Bull has 

 changed, for the mutton of the black-faced breeds is worth in 

 Smithfield market a halfpenny per pound more than the Leices- 

 ters. We take it that the English are the best judges; and, 

 following them, South Downs are to be recommended as more 

 valuable to us here than Leicesters. They certainly are to be 

 so recommended if the fashion of feeding, or more properly 

 starving, sheep, hitherto often practised, is to be continued; for 

 they have "a patience of occasional short keep, and an endur- 

 ance of hard stocking, equal to any other sheep." 



But the best sheep (in the opinion of those of your commit- 

 tee who have seen them) which have yet been introduced to the 

 United States are those lately imported by Mr. Fay, of Lynn — a 



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