8o THE SHEEP AND ITS COUSINS 



Man, Ireland, and the Hebrides and Shetlands, 

 to which reference has been made in the preceding 

 chapter, the British Isles have long possessed a 

 greater variety of sheep than any other country of 

 the same extent ; and they also lay claim to having 

 produced some of the finest and most profitable 

 breeds in the world, apart from the merino. One 

 reason why the latter has not found favour in Great 

 Britain is that it is practically an exclusively wool- 

 producing type, whereas in the British Islands, the 

 production of mutton is an essential attribute in 

 order to render any particular breed profitable. 

 Accordingly, one of the great objects of breeders 

 has been to produce strains fitted for the butcher 

 at an earlier period, and yielding heavy carcases. 

 Although such sheep are the most profitable to the 

 breeder and the grazier, the early age at which they 

 come into the hands of the butcher renders their 

 mutton far inferior in quality and flavour to that of 

 the small Welsh and other mountain breeds, which 

 are allowed to attain full maturity before passing to 

 the table of the consumer. 



Scotland was in former days the home of various 

 breeds of small sheep belonging to what is known 

 as the soft-woolled type ; but even half a century 

 ago these had been so altered by crossing with 

 larger and more profitable breeds from the south 

 that only a few pure-bred flocks remained, and 

 these chiefly in the central Highlands and the 



