SHEEP. 15 



scarcely any other stock. While our farmers have had 

 their attention distracted by many other things, the rear- 

 ing of the sheep tribe has from time immemorial been 

 considered by our neighbours as the most important of 

 agricultural pursuits. As if symbolical of the importance 

 which the nation attaches to this production, the Lord 

 Chancellor of England, as President of the House of Lords, 

 sits upon a wool sack (so called). Mutton also is highly 

 appreciated by the English. 



For the last hundred years France and the British Isles 

 have kept equal pace in the number of their sheep ; in 

 both countries it has doubled. It is calculated that in 

 1750 each possessed from seventeen to eighteen million 

 head ; at present the numbers may be reckoned at thirty - 

 five millions. The French official statistics give thirty- 

 two millions, and JVTCulloch makes the number the same 

 for the United Kingdom ; * but both I believe are a little 

 understated. This apparent similarity, however, conceals 

 a serious inequality. The thirty-five millions of English 

 sheep live upon thirty-one millions of hectares, those of 

 France upon fifty-three. To have proportionately as great 

 a number as our neighbours we should have sixty millions. 



This difference, which so far is material, is farther in- 

 creased when we compare France with England proper ; 

 the two other portions of the United Kingdom have but 

 few sheep relatively to their extent. Scotland, in spite 

 of all her endeavours, can maintain only about four 

 millions ; Ireland, which from its pastures ought to rival 

 England, reckons at most only two millions upon eight 

 millions of hectares ; and this is not one of the least of the 

 marks of its inferiority. England alone has about thirty 

 millions upon fifteen millions of hectares, or proportion- 

 ately three times more than France. 



* 31,754,189. 



