SHETLAND ISLAND SHEEP IRISH SHEEP. 113 



SHETLAND ISLAND SHEEP. 



The Shetland Islands are situated far to the north of 

 Scotland. The sheep which inhabit them have long been 

 celebrated for the remarkable fineness of their wool. They 

 are not, however, aboriginal, but derived many centuries since 

 from Denmark. They are small, seldom weighing more 

 than ten pounds to the quarter, and yield about two pounds 

 of wool, which has commanded as high as from three to four 

 shillings sterling per pound. 



Mr. Youatt says — " There is, perhaps, no part of the 

 world in which the breed, or the few of it that are at present 

 found, have remained, century after century, precisely in the 

 same state. This admits of a ready explanation. The pure 

 Shetland sheep deserves not the name of a domestic animal. 

 He is scarcely seen more than once in the year, when he is 

 hunted home in order to be shorn. Often he is scarcely 

 seen at that period, for he left his coat among the bushes, 

 and is suffered to escape disregarded." 



IRISH SHEEP. 



The sheep has been an inhabitant of Ireland from time 

 immemorial, but history and tradition afford no accounts from 

 whence the animal sprung. 



Few countries are belter adapted than Ireland for breeding 

 and perfecting the sheep. The climate is removed from 

 extremes of heat and cold, and the soil, even to the summits 

 of its highest mountains, prolific of pasture. 



The primitive sheep were of two kinds, short and long 

 wooled; the former are confined to the mountains. In the 

 county of Wicklow the short-wooled breed abounds, perhaps, 

 at the present time, in the largest number. The fleece is 

 represented as wavy, weighing from 2 to 3 lbs., and the fibre 

 about two inches in length. The breed is valuable from the 

 fineness of its wool, hardiness, and endurance of hard stock- 

 ing. The cross of the South Down was attended with evi- 

 dent advantage, yet, from the prejudice and jealousy of 

 the Irish farmers, it was not carried to the extent its success 

 deserved. A cross was also attempted with the Merino, but 

 it failed principally because the Merino was not suited to the 

 humid and cold pastures of the mountains. 



The native long- wooled breed, until about the beginning 

 of the present century, had been sadly neglected. They 



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