30 
THE SHEEP. 
THE CHEVIOT BREED. 
The Cheviot Breed amalgamates readily with the Leicester; and a system of breeding has been extensively introduced for 
producing the first cross of this descent. The rams employed are of the pure Leicester breed; and the progeny is superior in size, 
weight of wool, and tendency to fatten, to the native Cheviot. The lambs of this descent are sometimes disposed of to the butcher, 
and sometimes fed until they are shearlings, when they can be rendered as fat as the parent Leicesters, and not much inferior in 
weight; and further, they can be raised to maturity under less favourable conditions of soil and herbage than the Leicester. The 
benefit, however, may be said to end with the first cross, and the progeny of this mixed descent is greatly inferior to the pure 
Leicester in form and fattening properties, and to the pure Cheviot in hardiness of constitution. The system is attended with 
considerable profit in many cases. The danger is, that it may insensibly produce a mixture of the Leicester blood on the breeding 
farms. Even this may answer peculiar situations; but there cannot be a question that, for general cultivation in the high and 
tempestuous countries to which the Cheviot breed is adapted, the race should be preserved in its native purity. Every mixture of 
stranger blood has been found to lessen that character of hardiness which is the distinguishing character of the race. The beauti¬ 
ful breed of Southdowns would seem to be of all others that which is best adapted to improve the Cheviot, and yet the experi¬ 
ments that have hitherto been made have shown that the mixed progeny is far inferior to the native Cheviot in its adaptation to a 
country of cold and humid mountains. 
The Cheviot Breed, it has been seen, has been gradually extending throughout the mountainous parts of Scotland. It has 
penetrated southward in the part of the central chain of elevated moors from which the Heath Beeedjias been derived. It might 
be yet greatly more extended in this direction, and supersede many of the flocks of ill-formed animals which inhabit this range. 
It has been carried to Wales, to the high lands of Dartmoor and Exmoor, and in small numbers into Cornwall. In all these cases 
it has been found superior to the native races. It has even been carried by settlers to the boundless wastes of New South Wales; 
but the suitable breed for that country, in which the wool alone is of value, is the Merino, although, as we shall afterwards have 
occasion to see, some of the Long-woolled Breeds may, with advantage, be transported to this magnificent Colony. 
