Agricultural Weeds. 
381 
covered with turf from the road-side; this, on heing fired, burnt 
in a smothered manner ; the children brought all the weeds and 
refuse tliey could collect from time to time, and added it green 
to the rest, and by the occasional addition of turfs a continued 
smothered fire was kept up for weeks ; in one cottage-garden was 
as much as 50 bushels, and the process still going on. With these 
ashes the farmer always did well in his turnip-crop ; so that 
not only was an exterminating warfare carried on with our 
enemies, but they were destined ultimately to be converted into 
food ; and we cannot better conclude this essay than by saying. 
Always destroy the life and reproductive power of weeds, even 
by fire, if necessary. 
XX. — On Lamenesses of Sheep and Lambs. By FiNLAY Dux, 
formerly Lecturer on Materia Medica and Dietetics at the 
Edinburgh Veterinary College. 
The sheep of the British Isles are believed to number about 
35,000,000 ; England alone possesses about 27,000,000 ; Scot- 
land, according to the agricultural statistics of 1854, has 
4,787,235, and Ireland, in 1853, had 3,142,656. Calculating 
the 35,000,000 as worth 30s. a-head, the sheep stock of Britain 
is worth 52,500,000/. sterling. The well-being of these flocks is 
a point of national as w"ell as of agricultural importance, for they 
not only materially enhance the fertility of the soil and afford a 
good return to the farmer, but also largely contribute to the feed- 
ing and clothing of our population. About 10,000,000 of sheep, 
weighing on an average 80 lbs. each, are annually slaughtered for 
food. This furnishes 800,000,000 lbs. of mutton, or on an ave- 
rage rather more than half a pound per day for each individual in 
the three kingdoms. The mutton at 6rf. per pound is worth 
20,000,000/. sterling. Professor Low estimates, that, allowing for 
the deficient weight of the wool of slaughtered sheep and lambs, 
each fleece averages 4^ lbs., and the total annual produce of wool 
Avill therefore be 157,500,000 lbs. Fixing the value at is. M. 
per lb., the total yearly value of the wool of Great Britain is 
nearly 10,000,000/. sterling. Besides this large home growth 
about 40,000,000 lbs. are annually received from Australia, and 
about 10,000,000 or 12,000,000 lbs. from the Cape of Good Hope 
and British India. Fifty years ago these countries exported 
scarcely a pound of wool. A hundred years ago the flocks of Great 
Britain were about half as numerous as they are now. 
But profitable and valuable as is the sheep stock of Britain, it 
might undoubtedly be rendered far more so. Better and more 
VOL. XVI. 2 c 
