14 
THE SHEEP. 
BREED OF THE WICKLOW MOUNTAINS. 
in addition to that of the Ewes. In this manner the Lambs are fed for about six weeks, when they are ready for use. Under 
this system, the inhabitants of Dublin are supplied with as fine early lamb as any part of the United Kingdom. The Wicklow 
Ewes are good nurses, and hence are tolerably well adapted to this kind of management. By retarding the period of receiving 
the male, the Ewes are made to be impregnated in the months of summer, and having acquired the habit, the Ewes retain it, and 
are kept by tbe breeders as long as they will bear lambs. 
From the quality of the wool, the goodness of the mutton, and the adaptation of the females to the rearing of early lambs, the 
pure Wicklow Mountain Breed was not undeserving of being preserved and cultivated. The practice of crossing, however, has 
been introduced, and from the more immediate profit which it affords, is more likely to be pursued than a system of progressive im¬ 
provement by breeding from the native stock. The Southdown Sheep have been those chiefly employed for crossing, and are 
doubtless calculated to produce a race greatly superior to the indigenous one. It may be believed, however, that the Cheviot, 
already acclimated in an elevated country, would, as in the case of the Sheep of the Welsh Mountains, have been found better 
adapted to the crossing of the Sheep of these moist mountains. Nevertheless, a perseverance in a course begun, will be better than 
a change of purpose: and whichever race be preferred, the effect will be beneficial, and in a few generations the indigenous race of 
the Wicklow Mountains may be expected to cease to exist any where in the pure state. 
The full benefits, however, of any kind of crossing cannot be obtained, unless a better system of management is introduced 
amongst the neglected flocks of the district. At present, the smallness of the possessions, and the existence of commons are 
eminently unfavourable to the bringing this race of Sheep to any perfection. Their wildness of habits, is mainly the resu’lt of 
the circumstances m which they are placed, and can only be corrected by enclosures, by subdivison of flocks, and by a regular system 
of management. 
