r i36 ] 



then, the lownefs of this profit; which to 

 appearance renders fheep an object of fmall 

 importance ? This is a queftion that comes 

 immediately to the point. 



Throughout the moor farms in feveral 

 counties in the north of England, their 

 breed of fheep is more paltry than can well 

 be conceived in the fouth ; fo wretched, 

 that it would be abfurd to expect any consi- 

 derable profit from them : In the moors of 

 Northumberland, flocks rife to forty thoufand, 

 which number is kept near the head of 

 North Tync, by one Mr. (I think) Simon 

 Kidder, or fome fuch name ; many of thefe 

 immenfe flocks are not reckoned to pay 

 more than from is. to 31. a head, and 

 yet the cheefe they make of them is reckoned. 

 They milk the ewes, and ufe the butter for 

 greaiing their bodies in autumn, to preferve 

 the wool -, the cheefe they fell. Could any 

 good farmer have fuppofed there had exifted 

 fuch a fyftem of trifling ? And all this for a 

 profit of twelve-pence a head ! But farther; 

 would a Norfolk farmer believe, that men 

 who rented farms from 500/. to 2000/. a. 

 year, who have vaft tracks of arable land, 

 and are able to keep from five thoufand to 

 forty thoufand fheep, who take the minute 

 and amazing trouble of milking their ewes ; 

 would any man conceive, that thefe farmers 

 {hould not know what a fold is r This is 



one 



