Merino. Ryeland Breed of Sheep. 483 



all the land in this island stood in the meadows of Romney Marsh, or oh the hills 

 of Wiltshire. Providence has liberally supplied us with a variety of soils and situ- 

 ations, and has left it to the experience of man to assign to each its proper inha- 

 bitants. Deep soils I have had no opportunity of trying ; and those which arc 

 moist, are certainly not fit for any breeding or stock sheep ; but from ihe success 

 of the pure Merino (locks at Rambouillet and in Holland, I should have Hide 

 doubt that they might do tolerably well, though, probably, not so well as some 

 other breeds, on account of a somewhat greater propensity to the foot rot. I have 

 often folded them in the summer and autumn on arable land, and summer and 

 ■winter on dry pastures, without the smallest injury; but I do not think that they 

 will bear winter folding on heavy soils, and in exposed situations.* Neither would 

 this practice suit them on account of the quality of their wool, and the great quan- 

 tity of it which is spread over their bellies and legs. Every thing in nature has its 

 appropriate purposes; and he, who should regret that one object is inapplicable to 

 all, might with equal reason complain that he cannot roast his dinner at a candle, 

 or mow his fields with a razor. 



Exercise, no sheep can sustain in a superior, perhaps equal degree. I have 

 described the long and habitual journies of the pure Merino; and Lord Somerville 

 has sufficiently proved the same to be true with the Merino-Ryeland ; of which 5 

 wethers, exhibited at his late noble shew of cattle, at Barbican, had travelled fat, 

 without injury, 160 miles. 



Much apprehension is expressed by clodiiers, and those concerned in the manu- 

 ture of combing wool, lest the introduction of these breeds should expel those of 

 our native kinds, which have already been found so valuable for their particular 

 purposes. To this argument I might answer in general terms, that we might just 

 as well reprobate the encouragement which is given to the extension of the best 

 rams, lest they should annihilate neat cattle; and the introduction of potatoes, lest 

 they should exterminate wheat. There is no test of the value of any thing but its 

 demand, and, consequently, its price. The farmer will, doubtless, prefer those 

 objects which make him the greatest return, in a given time, for the capital and 

 labour which he employs, whether that return arise from potatoes in preference 



• Who is there, in fact, whether in Wiltshire, or elsewhere, who shall presume to decide, that 

 folding is not a poor and destructive expedient on all lands which are accessible to a cart or 

 a horse f 



