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24 NATURAL HISTORY. 
When two rams meet,they engage very bit Ev- 
ery ewe knows its lamb, and every lamb the bleating 
of its ewe, even amidi{t thoufands. .In England, they 
chiefly feed on the downs, in paftures, young fpring- 
_ ing corn lands, or turnip fields; but the downs have, 
by long experience, been found to prove by far the 
nfott beneficial, on account of the air and drynefs of 
foil, no animal being fo fuubjeét to the rot, as fheep, if 
fed on marfhy land. The whole flock of ewes, weth- 
ers and lambs, are fheared once ina year. Wethers 
have generally more and better wool than the ewes. 
Such 1s their utility in agriculture, that an hundred 
fheep will manure eight acres of ground. 
‘In Iceland they have a fpecies of this animal, called 
Manyhorned fheep; they-are of a dark brown colour, 
and, under the outward coat of hair, have a fine, fhort, 
foft fur, refembling wool. ' 
In Spain, the fheep producé a wool, fuperior to 
that of any other country. It is of fo excellent a 
quality, that our hatters and clothiers are obliged to 
purchafe it ata very great price, in order to enable 
them to manufacture fome of their eftimable articles. 
The great utility of fheep to Greatbritain may be 
feen by the following moderate calculation of fleece 
wool annually produced by their growth. 
According to the calculation of Young, in his Szx 
months Tour, there are 466532 packs of wool manufac- 
tured in Greatbritain and treland, and 285,000 packs 
exported unmanufactured. ‘The value of which, ef- 
timated at an average of £7, per pack, amounts to 
£5,260,724. The quantity manufactured is fuppofed 
to amount to the fum of £12,434,855, annually, which 
is circulated amongft induttrious artifans. As the 
whole value of Britifh manufacture, at the above pe- 
riod of calculation, was faid not to exceed £44,350,529, 
this article alone may be confidered as equal in value 
to one third of all the reft of their produce and man- 
ufactures. But what evinces {till more the value of 
fheep to Greatbritain and her dependencies, is, that 
the wool affords employment to 1,576,134, out of 
4,250,434, people, which are fuppofed to be the num- 
ber of the laborious part. iy a ko 
Broadtailed fheep are found in Tartary, Arabia, 
Perfia, Barbary, Syriaand Egypt. Such is the weight 
