SUMMER MANAGEMENT. 193 



calities. But centuries were required to accoinplish this, for 

 nature, when left to herself, is slow in effecting radical re- 

 sults. But thus the English husbandman found them at the 

 commencement of the era of improvement, and he under- 

 stoc d quite too well his interest to transfer the sheep, whose 

 accustomed walks for centuries were on the slopes and 

 mountain tops, to the abundant herbage of the valleys, or 

 exchange the rich keep of the larger varieties for_ poorer 

 and more scanty. He was content to improve the forms, 

 and increase the disposition to fatten and earlier maturity, 

 but to. go no farther; and long experience Jias attested his 

 practical \visdom. But this commendable example, from 

 various causes, is too often lost sight of by the American 

 breeder, and will presently be alluded to. 



Th6 £rst ppint appertaining to locality which will be con- 

 sidered, is 



The soil most suitable for the sheep is a dry one. It is 

 emphatically an upland animal, and loves the short and 

 varied herbage of hill and mountain slopes, provided the soil 

 is not poachy from an excess of moisture. To no other do- 

 mestic quadruped is water more repugnant, unless when ne- 

 cessary to lave its thirst, as will be seen in its aversion to 

 crossing streams, and always selecting the driest points for 

 feeding and rest. Whether it is thus, because it is endowed 

 with the instinctive knowledge, that the presence of too 

 much moisture in a soil engenders diseases too fatal to it, 

 cannot conclusively be determined. But there is strong 

 presumptive evidence that it is so, from the fact that this in- 

 telligent principle abounds in all the brute creation to that 

 degree, when free from the restraints of man, which induces 

 the formation of such habits only as conduce for the most 

 part to their welfare and safety. 



The chalky districts of England, on which so large a por 

 tion of the Down sheep are fed, causes a harsh and inelas- 

 tic feeling of their wool, as has already been remarked in 

 a former part of the work. Blacklock says^" Soil, also, 

 has much influence on the pliability of the wool. Chalky 

 lands, which are so notorious for injuring the fleece, are 

 supposed to act in the manner of a corrosive, but the correct 

 explanation is, not that the chalky particles attack the fibre in 

 a direct way, but that they render it brittle, by absorbing the 



17 



