London to John O 1 Groat's. 173 



wards of 3,000 sheep are kept on the estate, of which 

 1,200 are breeding ewes. These are folded, acre by 

 acre, on turnips, cole or trefoil, and those fattened for 

 the market are fed with oil-cake in the field. The 

 locusts of Egypt could not have left the earth barer of 

 verdure than these sheep do the successive patches of 

 roots in which they are penned for twenty-four or forty- 

 eight hours, nor could any other process fertilise the 

 land more thoroughly and cheaply. Then 76 horses 

 and 200 fattening hogs add their contingent to the 

 manurial expenditure and production of the establish- 

 ment. Thus the fertilising material applied to the 

 estate cannot amount to less than 5,000, or 24,000 

 dollars per annum. 



Sheep are the most facile and fertile source of nett 

 income on the estate. Indeed, nearly all the profit on 

 the production of meat is realised from them. Most of 

 those I saw were Southdowns and Hampshires, pure or 

 crossed, with here and there a Leicester. After being 

 well fattened, they fetch in the market about double 

 the price paid for them as stock sheep. About 2,000, 

 thus fattened, including lambs, are sold yearly. They 

 probably average about 2, or ten dollars per head ; 

 thus amounting to the nice little sum of 4,000 a year, 

 as one of the sources of income. 



Perhaps it would be easier to estimate the total ex- 



