THE RAM. 



with a large acarus, or tick, which is eagerly fought after by magpies and 

 Harlings. 



It has already been remarked, that the Sheep is the moll valuable of the 

 leffer quadrupeds, of which the immenfe profits arifmg to this country from 

 the different branches of the woollen manufacture, afford fufficient proof. 

 How it came to be fo long neglected in England, is matter of juft 

 aftonifhment, as it does not appear to have been much encouraged till the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth, fince which period it has thriven fo much, that 

 it is now generally allowed to be the fiaple commodity of Britifh 

 commerce(A). But, befides the wool, there is hardly any part of this 

 creature that is not applied to the various neceflities of man : the flefh is 

 a nutritious and wholefome food, and never cloys the appetite ; the milk 

 produces butter and cheefe in great abundance; the fkin is ufed for making 

 gloves, parchment, and the covers of books ; and of the entrails, firings are 

 manufactured for mufical inflruments, and to cover the handles of whips ; 

 the bones, calcined, are ufed by the refiners, and the dung is a rich article of 

 manure in hufbandry (b )i 



The Sheep bred in Great Britain are by far fuperior to thofe produced in 

 any other country ; thofe reared in Herefordfhire, Devonfhire, and Cotfwold 

 Downs have the finer! fleeces, and the Lincolnfhire and Warwicklhire breed 

 are the largefl, and exceed all others in the quantity and goodnefs of their 

 wool. A lock, from one of Mr. Chaplin's Lincolnfhire breed, meafured 

 twenty three inches in length : the individual from which it was taken 

 weighed thirty Hone, feven pounds, reckoning eight pounds to the ftone ; 

 and a Wether, of three years old, produced twenty-fix pounds and three 

 quarters of wool. Fifty guineas are commonly given for a Ram of the 

 Lincolnfhire breed ; and, at Mr. Chaplin's fale, three Lambs were fold as 

 follows, one for 174I. one for l5ol. and one for 1201. and many others came 



(a) " The annual value of wool {horn in England, is eftimated at two millions fierling, which produces, 

 when manufactured, the prodigious fum of fix millions." 



(b) Buffon fays, that one hundred Sheep, properly folded, will in one fummer fertilize eight acres of 

 land for fix years. 



