

THE CHEVIOT BREED. 113 



The Cheviot Breed, naturalized in countries so cold and 

 tempestuous, and spreading over so large a tract of country, 

 must be seen to be of the highest economical importance. 

 The attention of agriculturists, in the district proper to the 

 breed, has been skilfully directed to its improvement. Su- 

 perior feeding has had the effect of enlarging the size of the 

 animals, and increasing the produce of wool ; but the wool, 

 as was before observed, has become less fine, and has almost 

 ceased to be used in the manufacture of cloths. It has, 

 therefore, become the interest of breeders to direct attention 

 to the improvement of the form of the animals, holding the 

 quality of the wool to be a secondary consideration. Never- 

 theless, to this extent, attention to the wool is proper : a fine 

 and close fleece indicates constitutional hardiness in the in- 

 dividuals, and should therefore be carefully attended to as a 

 character in the breeding parents. 



The Cheviot Breed amalgamates readily with the Leices- 

 ter ; and a system of breeding has been extensively intro- 

 duced for producing the first cross of this descent. The 

 rams employed are of the pure Leicester breed; and the 

 progeny is superior in size, weight of wool, and tendency to 

 fatten, to the native Cheviot. The lambs of this descent are 

 sometimes disposed of to the butcher, and sometimes fed 

 until they are shearlings, when they can be rendered as fat 

 as the parent Leicesters, and not much inferior in weight ; 

 and further, they can be raised to maturity under less favour- 

 able conditions of soil and herbage than the Leicester. The 

 benefit, however, may be said to end with the first cross, 

 and the progeny of this mixed descent is greatly inferior to 

 the pure Cheviot in hardiness of constitution. The system 

 is attended with considerable profit in many cases. The 

 danger is, that it may insensibly produce a mixture of the 

 Leicester blood on the breeding farms. Even this may an- 

 swer peculiar situations ; but there cannot be a question 

 that, for general cultivation in the high and tempestuous 

 countries to which the Cheviot breed is adapted, the race 



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