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animal there is kept in great exercise while procuring its 

 food, and is much longer getting fat ; thus its flesh becomes 

 faster upon it like a horse in good condition and not so 

 frothy as the flesh quickly put on. It is from this cause, 

 in my opinion, that the Southdown mutton has acquired 

 its celebrity for fine flavor. I am convinced we can in 

 this county make a much greater weight of mutton per 

 acre, with Leicesters, than with Southdowns ; but for the 

 purpose of folding, to manure large arable farms, there 

 is no breed of sheep equal to the Downs. Leicesters are 

 more indolent animals ; they like a good bite to fill their 

 bellies quickly, and lay down to rest. The South-downs 

 are more on the move, herd much together, and lay their 

 dung where it is not wanted, under the hedges. Full thirty 

 years ago, I gave my opinion in the Farmer's Journal, that 

 for different soils, and different parts of the kingdom, there 

 were two breeds of sheep that were decidedly superior to all 

 others, the Southdowns and the Leicesters ; and that 

 opinion I now retain. Mutton is more easy to sell at a 

 fair, remunerating price, than beef; it is the meat which 

 people can feed on daily for the longest time without 

 being tired ; it is a meat best suited to all the 

 middle classes of the community, and to most of the 

 lower and therefore being the food of the chief part of 

 the population of the country, must ever be in good 

 demand, although the peasantry of the kingdom, from 

 being now generally accommodated with small quantities of 

 land to raise potatoes, will consume much pig meat of their 

 own feeding. Long have I regretted that in this country, 

 which is capable of producing animal food in abundance 

 for the whole population, that agricultural labourers who, 

 from being always in the air, need more of it than any 

 other class of people should so long have had the least. 

 These are my feelings, and it is to be hoped they are quite 

 in unison with those of all the people of England, whose 

 wants have ever been amply supplied. When the situation 

 of the Irish peasantry is considered, I trust that these 

 feelings are more acute in those who derive income from 

 that country, and spend it in this. Useful as sheep are for 

 grazing, there should be store cattle kept with them ; other- 

 wise, all the fine bottom grasses of a pasture will go, and the 



