THE SHEEP AND GOATS 203. 
“transhumantes ” are divided into flocks, each under a head shepherd, or “ majoral.” The 
flocks follow the shepherds, who lead the way, and direct the length and speed of the journey. 
A few wethers, trained to the business, follow the shepherds, and the rest come in due order. 
Powerful dogs accompany them as guards. This system of sheep migration is controlled by 
a tribunal termed the Mesta. It can be traced back to the middle of the fourteenth century. 
By it persons are prohibited from travelling along the course of the route pursued by the 
flocks so long as they are on the road. It also maintains the right for the flocks to graze 
on all the open or common land that lies in the way. Moreover, it claims a path ninety 
yards wide through all enclosed and cultivated country. The length of the journey is over 
400 miles, which is accomplished in six or seven weeks. The system works greatly to the 
injury of local cultivators and stationary flocks, whose fields are injured by the migratory sheep. 
Photo by HW’. Reid] 
(Wishaw, N.B. 
CROSS-BRED SHEEP 
The class of sheep kept mainly on cultivated land in the North Midlands 
ENGLISH BREEDS OF SHEEP 
In England are reared the finest and most valuable sheep. This is evident from the 
prices paid for them by foreigners and breeders in our colonies. Except for merinos, no 
one comes to any other country but this when about to seek new blood for their flocks or 
to stock new lands. Recently 1,000 guineas were paid by a firm in Argentina for a single 
Lincoln ram. 
Differences, well marked and of great importance, exist between our different breeds. Each 
suits its own district, and each is carefully improved and kept pure by herd-books, in which all 
pedigree animals are entered. 
The “ general utility sheep” in England is the SourH Down; in Scotland, the BORDER 
LEICESTER. ‘The former is a small, fine sheep, with close wool, and yielding excellent mutton. 
It provides the meat sold in our best shops, and has largely stocked New Zealand. The 
original breed of England was possibly the COTSWOLD; it is a tall, long-woolled, white-fleeced 
