428 Breeds of Sheep best adapted to different Localities. 



of tliis breed : the fine wool which is found on the neck and 

 underneath the kempy covering, together with their general 

 aspect, indicate one generic origin. Whether the long-woolled 

 sheep, such as the Cotswold, Lincoln, Teeswater, &c., are de- 

 scended from the same common stock, viz., the short-woolled 

 variety, or the reverse, is a question that can never be satis- 

 factorily answered ; that a change of character may arise from 

 depasturing such on rich plains and alluvial soils through a series 

 of ages without having the blood intermixed with the smaller 

 breed and short-woolled variety is highly probable. The change 

 now going on in the character of the wool from the improved 

 Southdown sheep is an apt illustration of such an alteration 

 which it would be well if the breeders of Southdown stock would 

 direct more attention to, as Southdown wool at the present time is 

 not fit for carding, neither is it well adapted for the more valu- 

 able kinds of combing. If the staple could be lengthened, and 

 consequently a heavier fleece produced without deteriorating the 

 present fine, smooth, silky character of the fibre, the Southdown 

 would then yield a money return equal to that of our heaviest 

 long-woolled sheep. By judiciously crossing with a Cotswold, and 

 an occasional dash of the Anglo-merino, I feel persuaded that 

 such a desideratum might be obtained, in which case the carcase 

 would be increased and the wool at the same time be adapted for 

 the manufacture of cashmeres, challis and all the finer kinds of 

 manufactures, where silk and worsted are combined in one fabric, 

 by which means it would realise as high a price as any of the finest 

 German wools, with the exception of a very small quantity selected 

 with particular care for the purpose of forming the bodies (known 

 as felts) of the finest beaver hats. A wool of the description named 

 would find a ready market when the finest felting wools are com- 

 paratively unsaleable : the vacancy in this species of wool is now 

 in a great measure filled up by Alpaca* wool from South 

 America, but there are many purposes for which Alpaca wools 

 are unsuitable, and for which a combing wool such as described^ 

 would be well adapted. 



The Duke of Bedford made several experimental trials on the 

 relative values of different descriptions of sheep, on some of which 

 the greatest amount of care and attention was paid, and were the 

 longest continued of any similar experiments made in England. 

 The following is a synoptical table of the results of one of these 

 experiments made on four different breeds, viz. twenty, each of 

 Southdowns, Leicesters, Worcesters, and sixteen of Wiltshire : the 

 experiment was only carried on w T ith sixteen Wiltshires, as they 

 were found to consume as much food as twenty of the other breeds : — 



* An animal of the Llama tribe which inhabits the mountains of Peru. The sub- 

 stance here alluded to possesses, in some degree, the joint properties of goats-hair, silk, 

 and wool. 



