FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 153 
as a concomitant of the production of wool. Near 
large meat markets, mutton is the prime considera- 
tion and wool but the accessory ; remote from such 
markets, the converse of the proposition is true. But 
it does not follow in either case that the secondary 
object is to be unnecessarily neglected. 
The increase in the numbers and in the early ma- 
turity of sheep, enables England to support a vastly 
larger population than it possibly could have done 100 
years ago. It is hardly too much to say that the con- 
tinued sustenance of its people and the fertility of its 
soil depend upon these animals. England proper, 
with an area of 50,922 square miles, has thirty mil- 
lions of sheep. Without these, its soils could not be 
maintained in their present productiveness, and its 
population of 17,000,000 supplied with animal and 
vegetable food. It is now a conceded fact, that an 
equivalent result could not even approximately be 
obtained by the substitution of any other animals. 
It is not safe in a country of vast territory and 
sparse population like our own, to decide economic 
questions exclusively by English analogies and modes 
of reasoning. But in our own older Northern States, 
we are making some advance toward English condi- 
tions, at least in the circumstance of having a large 
class who are not agricultural producers: and we 
shall continue to make nearer approaches in that re- 
spect. 
We read much of the traditional “ roast beef” of 
England, but mutton now is the favorite animal food 
of her luxurious classes, and the cheapest animal food 
of her laboring classes. The same tastes and eco- 
nomic considerations are beginning to obtain a rapid 
ax 
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