THE LONG-WOOLLED BREEDS OF IRELAND. 185 



tinned since with such success that it is now difficult to find 

 an individual of the unmixed race in the whole country. 

 Many of the wealthier breeders acquired at once flocks of the 

 pure New Leicester Breed ; but the main effect was produced 

 by crossing, which everywhere took place with a rapidity 

 which may well be deemed remarkable in a country where 

 so defective a state of property exists, and where so many 

 obstacles counteract the natural course of improvement. 



But the present Long-woolled Sheep of Ireland still want 

 much of the perfection at which they are capable of arriving. 

 They are yet, for the most part, too coarse in their general 

 form, narrow in the chest, and flat-sided. The wool is only of 

 medium quality and weight; and there is a sort of harshness 

 about it, which shews that the long wool of Ireland was never 

 of good quality. The breed is more valued by the butcher 

 in its present state than when more highly improved ; but 

 there is manifestly too great a proportion of waste for the 

 profit of the breeder, and it does not appear that the mutton 

 is superior to that of the New Leicesters. It is the fear of 

 many breeders in Ireland, that the system of crossing has 

 been carried too far, and that the Sheep of the country are 

 becoming too small. The same fear was entertained by the 

 owners of the Teeswater, the Romney Marsh, and other 

 Long-woolled Sheep of England, when the Leicester blood 

 was first introduced. But time allayed these misapprehen- 

 sions, at least to the extent to which they were at first ex- 

 cited ; and although, in many districts of England, the breeders 

 seem now disposed to resist the further change of their stock 

 by crossing, this was not until after a larger infusion of the 

 blood of the new breed than has yet taken place in the great 

 mass of the Long-woolled Sheep of Ireland, which certainly 

 cannot be said to have arrived at a degree of refinement in- 

 jurious to their useful qualities. They have still, for the most 

 part, too great length of limbs with relation to the depth of 

 carcass ; and their apparent bulk of body may yet be materially 

 lessened without diminution of the weight. 



