230 



The Living Animals of the World 



losk M\\\ 



This is a pbotograpli of the largest sheep on record. 



sheep. Later a large heavy 

 sheep, with long wool and a 

 massive body, was bred in 

 the Midlands, and called the 

 Leicester Long-wool. This 

 sheep gives a great cut of 

 wool, and much coarse mutton. 

 The Cheviot Sheet, originally 

 bred on the hills of that 

 name, is now one of the 

 mainstays of the Scotch 

 mountain f a r m e r . The 

 Cheviots eat the grass on 

 the high hillsides, while the 

 Black-faced Highland Sheep 

 live on the heather higher 

 up. The Sdffolk, Oxford, 

 Hampshire, and other " Down " 

 sheep are larger breeds than 

 the South Down. The 

 EoMNEY jMarsh Sheep are a 

 heavy long-woolled breed. 

 The ExMOORS are small 

 heather-sheep like those of Wales, and the Soa and St. Kilda Sheep, which are often four- 

 horned, the smallest of all. 



The maintenance of flocks is now almost an essential part of English agriculture on all 

 chalk lands, which comprise a very large percentage of the southern counties. (3n the chalk 

 downs the flocks are the great fertilisers of the soil. Every night the sheep are folded on 

 the fields which are destined to produce corn in the following year. The manure so left on 

 the soil ensures a good crop, with no expense for carting the fertiliser from the farmyard, as 

 is the case with manure made by oxen kept in straw-yards. 



On the South Downs, Oxfordshire Downs or Chiltern Hills, Salisbury Plain, and the 

 Berkshire Downs the farms have been mainly carried on by the aid of the flocks. Where 

 these are no longer kept the land reverts to grass, and the growing of corn ceases. On the 

 coarse, new-sown grasses cattle take the lAace of sheep), and an inferior style of farming, like 

 the ranches of South America, replaces the < 



careful and highly skilled agriculture of Old ■ , . 



England. In the far north of Scotland cross- 

 bred sheep are now reared and fed in winter 

 on turnips, which will grow luxuriantly where 

 the climate is too bleak and wet for wheat. 



Eormerly cattle were the main source 

 of wealth to the owners of Highland estates. 

 The sheep was only introduced after the 

 Highlands were subdued subsequently to 

 the rebellion in 1745, It was found that 

 the rough-coated heather-sheep throve on the 

 wet and elevated hills. This led to their 

 substitution for cattle, as wool was then dear. 



Sheep are now in their turn giving way to rhoto o, j. t. Kannan] 



grouse and deer over much of the Central ,„,.,=„ ,.„TT,a 



Hii^hlands, as the price of wool has fallen. . ,,1 ^ ^vu v 



o ' 1 ^ ''• A snmll breed of iiill-aheep. 



[Bcrl-hamstcd. 



