ESSAY ON SHEEP HUSBANDRY. ' 149 



be bought cheap out of every large flock, in the spring, which 

 the dams will not own. Even cossets, however, will stray- 

 away from the cows, if there are many of them, and form a 

 flock by themselves.* 



THE KIND OF SHEEP FOR OUR COUNTY. 



As sheep cannot, probably, be profitable here for the ivool 

 alone, on account of the price of land, it is important that that 

 kind should be selected which is best for meat, or for meat and 

 wool combined. The Leicester sheep is one of the largest, 

 and fattens well. The wool is also in its favor, being long 

 and soft, and the fleece heavy, and will sell as quick at the 

 factory as the Merino, if not quite as high. The truth is, our 

 country imports more coarse wool than fine. The attention 

 of wool growers has been arrested chiefly to the culture of 

 Ji7ie wool; and although we have, after all, comparatively but 

 little of the very finest, we have almost as little of the wool 

 suitable for carpeting. Hence it follows, that our wool intend- 

 ed for sale, should be of the coarse kinds, and these we find up- 

 on the Leicester sheep. A modified quality may be obtained 

 for common family use by a mixture with the South down ; 

 indeed some extensive wool growers prefer this for every reason. 



The pare Leicesters shear from six to eight pounds a year, 

 and will always sell at the carpet mills. 



FUTURE SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN OUR COUNTY. 



As wool must be in some demand, and good mutton and 

 lamb in probably great demand, I look forward to a large in- 

 crease of sheep, as an event not very distant. By the returns 

 of the marshals, as they were published in the Statistical Ta- 

 bles for 1845, there were at that time but 4892 sheep in the 

 county,! yielding 14,342 pounds of wool. In the same year, 

 there were 21,166 neat cattle kept in the county. Now if the 

 sober judgment of the late Mr. Newhall, before quoted, was 

 correct, there might have been as many sheep pastured, as 



* I purchased a fine cosset three years ago, and in the fall, a buck from a 

 flock. The cosset kept with the cows, and so compelled the ram to do for 

 company. A ewe from a flock was afterwards added, and even then the 

 cosset could not be induced to leave the cows, and the three kept together. 

 Next summer, however, when they were sent to a distance for pasture, and a 

 flock of sheep were in the adjoining pasture, mine left the cattle and joined 

 them. 



t In 1837, the number was 5837, sliowing a decrease of 915 iu eight years. 



