BREEDS, CROSSES, &C. 455 



meat will In that case eat better, and there is a probabi- 

 lity of much more fat within. 



" With resped to profit to the feeder, if they are fed 

 entirely with grass, and upon good land, my opinion is 

 decidedly in favour of South Downs; or if they eat tur- 

 nips in the winter, and after that are kept two or three 

 months upon grass in the spring, it is the same. But if 

 they are half fat against winter, and are to be completed 

 at turnips, I believe no sheep are more profitable than 

 Norfolks, perhaps none so much so. But both sorts should 

 be kept where there is both turnip and grass-land, 



" J9HN VYSE, butcher, 

 Eton College.'* 



Mr. Bake WELL observed upon this account, that the 

 Norfolk mutton not keeping, connefls very much with 

 the quantity, and perhnps the colour of the gravy. In all 

 sorts of meat, that which is chosen for gravy, and which 

 adlually abounds with it most is the lean ; and the freer 

 from fat the better. That loose texture which is implied 

 by the very circumstance of being full of gravy, is the 

 cause of the meat tainting so soon, by the admission of air. 



To this account there is one collateral circumstance to 

 be named : the Wiltshire sheep have proved in various 

 trials an unprofitable breed, as well as the Norfolks j but 

 it is remarkable that for turnips, no sheep are said, by many 

 pradlical and experienced husbandmen, to pay better, if so 

 well. In Hertfordshire many who turnip-feed adhere to 

 that breed, who admit the South Downs to be a superior 

 sort for grass-feeding. I cannot but conceive that this 

 whole comparative inquiry into the particular merits and 

 demerits of the breeds of sheep, is yet in its infancy : 

 certain important fadls are gained; but when they arc 

 combined, and the causes to be assigned, we are still in 

 great want of further observation and experiment. 



c g 4 Mr. 



