22 
THE SHEEP. 
THE BLACK-FACED HEATH BLEED. 
which are more hardy ; for in the case of all breeds, it is found that narrow-chested and flat-sided animals are less vigorous, and 
more subject to diseases, than such as have the body round and the chest wide. 
It is painful, however, to state, that this breed, so widely diffused, has been treated with comparative neglect. Various 
breeders have distinguished themselves by their attention to the form of the animals, and have reaped the reward in the superior 
character of their stock; but over the wide tract of country which the breed occupies, it is far inferior in economical value to that 
to which, by due attention, it might arrive. Breeders would find it for their interest to procure rams from the southern counties 
of Scotland, and from the stocks of the breeders whose farms are good, and who have paid the most attention to the character 
of their stock. 
The Black-faced Heath Breed, after having displaced the former races of a large tract of country, has itself, in the natural 
course of improvement, been giving way to another mountain breed of different characters. This is the breed of the Cheviot 
Mountains, likewise derived from a high and stormy country, but reared under circumstances more favourable with respect to the 
supplies of food, possessing fine and not coarse wool, and cultivated with greater attention on the breeding farms. But the hardier 
Heath Breed is still the more suitable to a great extent of country, where the prevalent herbage is heath, and still therefore 
merits the careful attention of a numerous class of breeders. 
