CHAPTER IX. 



ADAPTATION OF BEEEDS TO DIirEEENT SITUATIONS. 



MARKETS CT.TMATB VBGBTATIOlir SOILS NUMBEB OF 



SHEEP TO BE KEPT ASSOCIATED BBANCHES OF HITS- 



BANDBT. 



Pbesons desirous of engaging in Sheep Husbandry are 

 frequently at a loss to decide -what breed of sheep is best 

 adapted to their particular wants and circumstances. The 

 first and leading point to determine is whether it would be 

 most profitable to make mutton the prime consideration and 

 wool the accessory — or wool the prime consideration and 

 mutton the accessory. If the first conclusion is adopted, some 

 of the improved English mutton varieties are undoubtedly to 

 be preferred ; if the last, the Merino has no competitor. 



Mabkets. — Where other circumstances equally admit of 

 either husbandry, it is the market that determines which 

 product is most profitable to the producer. Wool has a vastly 

 greater and more universal consumption than mutton, because 

 it is a prime necessary of life to every man outside the tropical 

 zone. As such a necessary, it can never find any practical 

 substitutes. Mutton is not a necessary of life, although it is 

 made to contribute largely towards one — human food. It 

 readily admits of substitutes. It is scarcely used by large 

 classes of men and even by whole nations. Yet it is 

 demonstrable that it can be produced more cheaply than any 

 other meat. No meat, not even the choicest of beef, is more 

 palatable to those accustomed to its use ; and none is more 

 nutritious and healthful. The prize-fighter, whose success 

 depends upon the perfect integrity of all his physical tissues 

 and functions, is as often trained on mutton as on beef; the 

 physician as often recommends it to the invalid. And finally, 

 it wastes less than beef in being converted into food.* Every- 



* The Report on Sheep Husbandry made to the Mass. Board of Agricnlture in 

 1860, by Mr. James S. Grennell, thus condenses the results of various experiments 



