7096. Potato cheese is a German manufacture, of which there are three sorts. One of the best is thus prepared: Select mealy potatoes, and only half dress them in steam; for by bursting their flavour and efficacy are diminished. Peel them, and then grate or beat them into a fine pulp. To three parts of this mass add two parts of sweet curd, knead and mix them, and allow them to stand three days in warm, and four or five days in cold, weather; form into small pieces like the Westphalia cheeses, and dry in the same manner. A still better sort of potato cheese is formed of one part of potatoes and three of the curd of sheep's milk. This sort is said to exceed in taste the best cheese made in Holland, and to possess the additional advantage that it improves with age, and generates no vermin.

7097. The preparations of milk, which can neither be included under butter nor cheese, are various, and constitute a class of wholesome luxuries or rural drinks. We shall do little more than enumerate them, and refer for further details to the cookery books.

7098. Curds and whey is merely coagulated new milk stirred up, and the curd and whey eaten together, with or without sugar and salt.

7099. Curds and cream; here the whey is removed and cream substituted, with or without sugar. The milk coagulated is often previously skimmed.

7100. Sour cream; cream allowed to stand in a vat till it becomes sour, when it is eaten with fresh cream and sugar, or new milk and sugar, and is found delicious.

7101. Corstorphin cream, so named from a village of that name, two miles from Edinburgh, from which the latter city is supplied with it. The milk of three or four days is put together with the cream, till it begins to get sour and coagulated, when the whey is drawn off and fresh cream added. It is, therefore, simply sour curd and fresh cream. It is eaten with sugar as a supper dish, and in great repute in the north.

7102. Devonshire cream is a term applied in the county of that name, sometimes to sour curd, and some. times to sour cream; in either case mixed with new milk or fresh cream, and caten with sugar like the Corstorphin cream.

7103. Devonshire scalded or clouted cream. The milk is put into tin or earthen pans, holding about ten or twelve quarts each. The evening's meal is placed the following morning, and the morning's milk is placed in the afternoon, upon a broad iron plate heated by a small furnace, or otherwise over stoves, where, exposed to a gentle fire, they remain until after the whole body of cream is supposed to have formed upon the surface; which being gently removed by the edge of a spoon or ladle, small air bubbles will begin to rise that denote the approach of a boiling heat, when the pans must be removed from off the heated plate or stoves. The cream remains upon the milk in this state until quite cold, when it may be removed into a churn, or, as is more frequently the case, into an open vessel, and then moved by hand with a stick about a foot long, at the end of which is fixed a sort of peel from four to six inches in diameter, and with which about twelve pounds of butter may be separated from the buttermilk at a time. The butter in both cases being found to separate much more freely, and sooner to coagulate into a mass, than in the ordinary way, when churned from raw cream that may have been several days in gathering, and at the same time will answer a more valuable purpose in preserving, which should be first salted in the usual way, then placed in convenient-sized egg-shaped earthen crocks, and always kept covered with a pickle, made strong enough to float and buoy up about half out of the brine a new-laid egg. This cream, before churning, is the celebrated clouted cream of Devon. Although it would be reasonable to suppose that the scalding the milk must have occasioned the whole of the oily or unctuous matter to form on the surface, still experience shows that this is not the case, and that the scalded skim-milk is much richer and better for the purposes of suckling, and makes far better cheese than the raw skim-milk does. The ordinary produce of milk per day, for the first twenty weeks after calving, is three gallons, and is equal to the producing of one pound and a quarter of butter daily by the scalding process. The scald skim-milk is valued at one penny farthing per quart, either for cheese-making or feeding hogs. The sum of the trials procured to be made on the milk in several parts of this district gives an average of twelve pints of milk to ten ounces of butter (less than ten quarts to a pound of sixteen ounces). When cheese is to be made, great care is taken that the milk is not heated so far as to produce bubbles under the cream. (Vancouver's Survey of Devon, p. 214.)

7104 Clotted cream. The milk, when drawn from the cow, is suffered to remain in the coolers till it begins to get sour and the whole is coagulated. It is then stirred and the whey drawn off, or the cream (now in clots among the curd) and the curd removed.

7105. Hatted kitt. A gallon of sour buttermilk is put in the bottom of the milk-pail, and a quart or more of milk drawn from the cow into it by the milk-maid. The new warm milk, as it mixes with the acid of the sour milk, coagulates, and being lighter, rises to the top and forms a creamy scum or hat over the other; whence the name. This surface stratum is afterwards taken off and eaten with sugar.

7106. Milk syllabub is formed in a similar manner over a glass or two of wine, and the whole is then eaten with sugar. Both sorts may be formed by those who have no cow, by warming the sweet or new milk, and squirting it into the wine or sour milk.

7107. Skim-milk is milk from which the cream has been removed. When this has been done within twelve or fifteen hours from the time of milking, it is sweet and wholesome, and fit either for being heated or coagulated in order to make cheese, &c., or used as it is with other food; but if allowed to remain twenty or thirty hours, it becomes sour, coagulates spontaneously, the whey separates from the curd; and if it remain a certain period, generally three weeks longer, in a warm temperature, the vinous fermentation takes place, and a wine or a liquor, from which ardent spirit may be distilled, is produced. 7108. Buttermilk is that which remains in the churn after the butter has been taken off. When butter has been made from cream alone, it is seldom of much value; but where the whole milk has been churned, and no water poured in during the process, it is a very wholesome cooling beverage. Some prefer it when it has stood a few days and become sour. In England it is chiefly given to pigs; but in Ireland it forms a very common diluter to porridge, potatoes, oat cakes, peas cakes, and other food of the labouring classes, and especially of the farm servants. In the Orkney Islands and other northern parts of Britain, as well as in Ireland, buttermilk is sometimes kept till it undergoes the vinous fermentation, when it is used to procure intoxication.

7109. Sour milk, Aiton observes, requires considerable care in the manufacturing, and the use of the thermometer ought never to be omitted. "When the operation is carried on at a low temperature, the milk swells when agitated in the churn, appears of a white colour, throws up air bubbles, and makes, when agitated or churned, a rattling noise. But when it is in proper temperature the milk does not swell or rise in the churn, it is of a straw or cream colour, emits a much softer sound, and does not cast up air bubbles so plentifully as when colder. When milk is either overheated or churned too hastily, the butter is always soft and of a white colour. From two to three hours is a proper time for performing the oper. ation of churning. In the manufacture of sour milk, and in every branch of dairy husbandry, the utmost attention to cleanliness is indispensably necessary. The milk must no doubt become sour, and even coagulate before it is churned; but if that souring is not natural, but brought on by any foulness in the vessels through which the milk passes, or by any sort of admixture, or even by the milk being kept in a damp place, in one too hot or too cold, or even by exposure to an impure atmosphere, the acidity will not be a natural one, nor the taste of the milk or butter agrecable, but acrid and unpalatable. Every vessel through which the milk passes must be as clean, and every part where it is kept before being churned must be as free from dampness, and every species of impurity or bad air, as if it were intended to keep the

milk long sweet for skim-milk cheese. Buttermilk is used more or less by the labouring classes in ail parts of Scotland, and in particular in the city of Glasgow, on the authority of the secretary to the Board of Agriculture, it is adjudged to the pigs in England; but in the western counties of Scotland, as well as in Ireland, it is used to a vast extent as human food. It is used as drink, and is certainly far superior to the miserable table-beer generally drank in England. It serves as kitchen to pottage, bread, potatoes, &c.; and when a linen bag like a pillow-slip is filled with it, and hung up till the serum drop, and a small quantity of sweet cream is mixed with what remains in the bag, and a little sugar when the milk is too sour, it forms a dish that might be placed on the table of a peer of the realm.

7110. The method of making butter and buttermilk in Holland is somewhat different from the mode in the vicinity of Glasgow. After the milk is cold it is put into a pan or vat, and well stirred with a wooden spoon or ladle two or three times a day, to prevent the cream from separating from the milk; and this sort of stirring or partial churning is continued till the milk becomes so thick and clotted that the ladle or spoon stands erect in the milk: after which it is put into the churn, and beat or churned for one hour or so. Cold water is poured in, to help to collect the butter and separate the milk from it; after which the butter is washed in cold water. By this method the Hollanders imagine they obtain more butter from the milk than they can do any other way. They also say, that both the butter and buttermilk are better when made in that way than when churned as is done in England,

7111. Whey, when new and of a pale green colour, forms an agreeable beverage, and with oatmeal makes an excellent gruel or porridge. Left till it gets sour, it undergoes the vinous fermentation as readily as buttermilk; and man, who in every state of civilisation feels the necessity of occasionally dissipating the cares of his mind, when he cannot find tobacco, opium, malt liquors, or ardent spirit, has recourse to sour whey.

CHAP. VI.

The Sheep. — O`vis A`ries L.; Mammàlia Pécora L, and Ruminàleæ Cuv. Brébis, Fr. ; Schaf, Ger.; Oveja, Span.; and Pecora, Ital.

7112. The sheep is an inhabitant of every part of the globe, from Iceland to the regions of the torrid zone. The varieties of form and clothing necessary to fit it for existing in so many climates are of course numerous. In most of these countries it is cultivated for its wool or flesh, and in many for both; but it is most cultivated in Europe, and especially in France, Spain, and Britain. In the latter country its culture has attained an astonishing degree of perfection. Besides the 0). Aries, or common sheep, there are three other species; the 0. A'mmon or Siberian sheep, the Pudu or South American, and the Strepsiceros or Cretan sheep. By some these are considered mere varieties. The Cretan and Siberian are cultivated in Hungary and Siberia.

7113. The common sheep in a wild state prefer open plains, where they herd together in small flocks, and are in general active, swift, and easily frightened by dogs or men, When completely domesticated, the sheep appears as stupid as it is harmless. It is characterised by Buffon as one of the most timid, imbecile, and contemptible of quadrupeds. When sheep, however, have an extensive range of pasture, and are left in a considerable degree to depend on themselves for food and protection, they exhibit a more decided character. A ram has been seen in these circumstances to attack and beat off a large and formidable dog. Sheep display considerable sagacity in the selection of their food; and in the approach of storms they perceive the indications with accurate precision, and retire for shelter always to the spot which is best able to afford it. The sheep is more subject to disorders than any of the domesticated animals; gid. diness, consumption, scab, dropsy, and worms frequently seizing upon and destroying it. That popularly called the rot is the most fatal, and is supposed to arise from the existence of animals called fluke worms, of the genus Fasciola, which inhabit the vessels of the liver. Other parasitic animals attack and injure them, as the hydatids within the skull, producing symptoms called sturdy, turnsick, staggers, &c. Frontal worms, deposited by the sheep fly, in some cases prove very injurious also.

7114. Of all the domestic animals of Britain, Brown observes, sheep are of the greatest consequence, both to the nation and to the farmer; because they can be reared in situations, and upon soils, where other animals would not live, and in general afford greater profit than can be obtained either from the rearing or feeding of cattle. The very fleece, shorn annually from their backs, is of itself a matter worthy of consideration, affording a partial return not to be obtained from any other kind of stock. Wool has long been a staple commodity of this island, giving bread to thousands who are employed in manufacturing it into innumerable articles for home consumption and foreign exportation. In every point of view, sheep husbandry deserves to be esteemed as a chief branch of rural economy, and claims the utmost attention of agriculturists. For many years back it has been studied with a degree of diligence and assiduity not inferior to its merits; and the result has been, that this branch of rural management has reached a degree of perfection favourable to those who exercised it, and highly advantageous to the public.

7115. The varieties of the O. Aries, or common sheep, dispersed over the world are, according to Linnæus, the hornless, horned, blackfaced, Spanish, many-horned, African, Guinea, broad-tailed, fat-rumped, Bucharian, long-tailed, Cape, bearded, and morvant; to which some add the Siberian sheep, cultivated in Asia, Barbary, and Corsica, and the Cretan sheep, which inhabits the Grecian islands, Hungary, and Austria; by Linnæus considered as species.

7116. The varieties of British sheep are so numerous that at first sight it appears almost impossible to reduce them into any regular classes. They may, however, be divided in two ways: first, as to the length of their wool; and secondly, as to the presence or absence of horns. A third classification might be made after the place or districts in which such species are supposed to abound, to be in greatest perfection, or to have

7117. The long-woolled British sheep are chiefly the Teeswater, the * old and * new Leicester, the * Devonshire nots, Exmoor, and the Heath sheep.

7118. The short-woolled sheep are chiefly the Dorsetshire, Hereford or Ryeland, the *South Down, the Norfolk, the * Cheviot, the Shetland sheep, and the Merinos.

7119. The hornless breeds are those in the above classes marked (*), the others have horns. These breeds, and their subvarieties, may be further arranged according as they are suited to arable or enclosed lands, and to open or mountainous districts.

7120. The sheep best suited to arable land, an eminent writer observes, in addition to such properties as are common in some degree to all the different breeds, must evidently be distinguished for their quietness and docility; habits which, though gradually acquired and established by means of careful treatment, are more obvious, and may be more certainly depended on in some breeds than in others. These properties are not only valuable for the sake of the fences by which the sheep are confined, but as a proof of the aptitude of the animals to acquire flesh in proportion to the food they consume. 7121. The long-woolled large breeds are those usually preferred on good grass-lands; they differ much in form and size, and in their fatting quality as well as in the weight of their fleeces. In some instances, with the Lincolns or old Leicesters in particular, wool seems to be an object paramount even to the carcass; with the breeders of the Leicesters, on the other hand, the carcass has always engaged the greatest attention : but neither form nor fleece, separately, is a legitimate ground of preference; the most valuable sheep being that which returns, for the food it consumes, the greatest marketable value of produce.

7122. The Lincolnshire, or old Leicestershire breed, have no horns, the face is white and the carcass long and thin; the ewes weighing from 14 to 20 lbs., and the three-year-old wethers from 20 to 30 lbs. per quarter. They have thick, rough, white legs, bones large, pelts thick, and wool long, from ten to eighteen inches, weighing from 8 to 141bs, per fleece, and covering a slow-feeding, coarse-grained carcass of mutton. This kind of sheep cannot be made fat at an early age except upon the richest land, such as Romney Marsh, and the richest marshes of Lincolnshire; yet the prodigious weight of wool which is shorn from them every year, is an inducement to the occupiers of marsh-lands to give great prices to the breeders for their hogs or yearlings; and though the buyers must keep them two years more, before they get them fit for market, they have three clips of wool in the mean time, which of itself pays them well in those rich marshes. Not only the midland counties, but also Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland, can send their long-woolled sheep to market at two years old, fatter in general than Lincolnshire can at three. Yet this breed, and its subvarieties, are spread through many of the English counties. 7123. The Teeswater sheep (fig. 882.) differ from the Lincolnshire in their wool not being so long and 882

heavy; in standing upon higher, though finer boned legs, supporting a thicker, firmer, heavier carcass, much wider upon their backs and sides; and in affording a fatter and finer grained carcass of mutton: the two-year-old wethers weighing from 25 to 35 lbs. per quarter. Some particular ones, at four years old, have been fed to 55 lbs, and upwards. There is little doubt that the Teeswater sheep were ori. ginally bred from the same stock as the Lincolnshire; but, by attending to size rather than to wool, and constantly pursuing that object, they have become a different variety of the same original breed. (Culley on Live Stock, p. 122.) The present fashionable breed is considerably smaller than the original species; but they are still considerably larger and fuller of bone than the midland breed. They bear an analogy to the short-horned breed of cattle, as those of the midland counties do to the longhorned. They are not so compact, nor so complete in their form, as the Leicestershire sheep; neverthe 883

less, the excellence of their flesh and fatting quality is not doubted, and their wool still remains of a superior staple. For the banks of the Tees, or any other rich fat-land county, they may be singularly excellent.

7124. The Dishley, or new Leicester breed (fig. 883.), is distinguished from other long-woolled breeds by their clean heads, straight, broad, flat backs, round barrel-like bodies, very fine small bones, thin pelts, and inclination to make fat at an early age.This last property is most probably owing to the before-specified qualities, and which, from long experience and observation, there is reason to believe extends through every species of domestic animals. The Dishley breed is not only peculiar for its mutton being fat, but also for the fineness of the grain, and superior Яavour, above all other large long-woolled sheep, so as to fetch nearly as good a price, in many markets, as the mutton of the small Highland and short-woolled breeds. The weight of ewes, three or four years old, is from 18 to 26 lbs, a quarter, and of wethers, two years old, from 20 t♬ 30 lb. The wool, on an average, is from 6 to 8 lbs, a fleece. (Culley, p. 106.) 7125. The Devonshire Nots (fig. 884.) have white faces and legs, thick necks, narrow backs, and backbone high; the sides good, legs short, and the bones large; weight much the same as the Leicesters; wool heavier, but coarser. In the same county, there is a small breed of long-woolled sheep, known by the name of the Exmoor sheep, from the place where they are chiefly bred. They are horned, with white faces and legs, and peculiarly delicate in bone, neck, and head; but the form of the carcass is not good, being narrow and flat-sided. The weight of the quarters, and of the fleece, about two thirds that of the former variety.

884

7126. The shorter-woolled varieties, and such as, from their size and form, seem well suited to hilly and inferior pastures, are also numerous. Generally speaking, they are too restless for enclosed arable land, on the one hand; and not sufficiently hardy for heathy mountainous districts, on the other. To this class belong the breeds of Dorset, Hereford, Sussex, Norfolk, and Cheviot.

7127. The Dorsetshire sheep (fig. 885.) are mostly horned, white faced, stand upon high small white

legs, and are long and thin in the carcass. The wethers, three years and a half old, weigh from 16 to 20 lbs. a quarter. The wool is fine and short, from 3 to 4 lbs. a fleece. The mutton is fine grained and well flavoured. This breed has the peculiar property of producing lambs at almost any period of the year, even so early as September and October. They are particularly valued for supplying London and other markets with house lamb, which is brought to market by Christmas, or sooner if wanted, and after that a constant and regular supply is kept up all the winter.

7128. The Wiltshire sheep are a variety of this breed, which, by attention to size, have got considerably more weight; viz. from 20 to 28 lbs. a quarter. These, in general, have no wool upon their bellies, which gives them a very uncouth appearance. The variations of this breed are spread through many of the southern counties, as well as many in the west, viz. Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, &c. ; though some of them are very different from the Dorsetshire, yet they are, Culley apprehends, only variations of this breed, by crossing with different tups; and which variations continue northward until they are lost amongst those of the Lincolnshire breeds. (Culley, p. 131.) 7129. The Herefordshire breed (fig. 886.) is known by the want of horns, and their having white legs

836

and faces, the wool growing close to their eyes. The carcass is tolerably well formed, weighing from 10 to 18 lbs. a quarter, and bearing very fine short wool, from 13 to 24 lbs. a fleece: the mutton is excellent. The store or keeping sheep of this breed are put into cots at night, winter and summer, and in winter foddered in racks with peas-straw, barley-straw, &c., and in very bad weather with hay. These cots are low buildings, quite covered over, and made to contain from one to five hundred sheep, according to the size of the farm or flock kept. The true Herefordshire breed are frequently called Ryeland sheep, from the land formerly being thought capable of producing no better grain than rye; but which now yields every kind of grain. A cross between this breed and the merinos was extensively cultivated by the late Dr. Parry, of Bath, an eminent wool-grower, and promoter of agricultural improvement.

7130. The South Down sheep (fig. 887.) are without horns: they have dark or black-grey faces and legs,

fine bones, long small necks; are low before, high on the shoulder, and light in the fore quarter; the sides are good, and the loin tolerably broad, back-bone too high, the thigh full, and twist good. The fleece is very short and fine, weighing from 2 to 3 lbs. The average weight of two years old wethers is about 18 lbs. per quarter, the mutton fine in the grain, and of an excellent flavour. These sheep have been brought to a high state of improvement by Elman, of Glynd, and other intelligent breeders. They prevail in Sussex, on very dry chalky downs, producing short fine herbage. 7131. In the Norfolk sheep the face is black, horns large and spiral, the carcass is very small, long, thin, and weak, with narrow chines, weighing from 16 to 20 lbs. per quarter; and they have very long dark or grey legs, and large bones. The wool is short and fine, from 1 to 2 lbs. per fleece. This race have a voracious appetite, and a restless and unquiet disposition, which makes it difficult to keep them in any other than the largest sheep-walks or commons. They prevail most in Norfolk and Suffolk, and seem to have been retained chiefly for the purpose of folding. As fatteners, they are not profitable; but the mutton produced is inferior to none. A three or four year old Norfolk wedder will produce a haunch, which, if kept two or three weeks, will vie with that of any animal excepting a buck. 7132. The Cheviot breed are without horns, the head bare and clean, with jaws of a good length, faces and legs white. The body is long, but the fore-quarters generally want depth in the breast, and breadth both there and on the chine; though, in these respects, great improvement has been made of late. They have fine, clean, small-boned legs, well covered with wool to the hough. The weight of the carcass, when fat, is from 12 to 18 lbs. per quarter; their fleece, which is of a medium length and fineness, weighs about 3 lbs. on an average. Though these are the general characters of the pure Cheviot breed, many have grey or dun spots on their faces and legs, especially on the borders of their native districts, where they have intermixed with their black-faced neighbours. On the lower hills, at the extremity of the Cheviot range, they have been frequently crossed with the Leicesters, of which several flocks, originally Cheviot, have now a good deal both of the form and fleece. The best kind of these sheep are certainly a very good mountain stock, where the pasture is mostly green sward, or contains a large portion of that kind of herbage, which is the case of all the hills around Cheviot, where those sheep are bred. Large flocks of them have been sent to the Highlands of Scotland, where they have succeeded so well as to encourage the establishment of new colonies; yet they are by no means so hardy as the heath or blackfaced kind, which they have, in many instances, supplanted.

7133. Of those races of sheep that range over the mountainous districts of Britain, the most numerous, and the one probably best adapted to such situations, is the heath breed, distinguished by their large spiral horns, black faces and legs, fierce wild-looking eyes, and short, firm carcasses, covered with long, open, coarse shagged wool. Their weight is from 10 to 16 lbs. a quarter, and they carry from 3 to 4 lbs. of wool each. They are seldom fed until they are three, four, or five years old, when they fatten well, and give excellent mutton, and highly flavoured gravy. Different varieties of these sheep are to be found in all the western counties of England and Scotland, from Yorkshire northwards, and they want nothing but a fine fleece to render them the most valuable upland sheep in Britain.

888

7134. The Herdwick sheep (fig. 886.) are peculiar to that rocky mountainous district at the head of the Duddon and Esk rivers, in the county of Cumberland. They are without horns, have speckled faces and legs, wool short, weighing from 2 to 24 lbs. per sheep, which, though coarser than that of any of the other short. woolled breeds, is yet much finer than the wool of the heath sheep. The mountains upon which the Herdwicks are bred, and also the stock itself, have, time immemorial, been farmed out to herds, and from this circumstance their name is derived.

7135. The dun-faced breed, said to have been imported into Scotland from Denmark or Norway at a very early period, still exists in most of the counties to the north of the Frith of Forth, though only

varieties, produced by peculiarities of situation, and different modes of management, and by occasional intermixture with other breeds. We may, therefore, distinguish the sheep of the mainland of Scotland from those of the Hebrides, and of the northern islands of Orkney and Zetland.

7136. The Hebridean sheep is the smallest animal of its kind. It is of a thin, lank shape, and has usually straight shorn horns. The face and legs are white, the tail very short, and the wool of various colours; sometimes of a bluish grey, brown, or deep russet, and sometimes all these colours meet in the fleece of one animal. Where the pasture and management are favourable, the wool is very fine, resembling in softness that of Shetland; but, in other parts of the same islands, the wool is stunted and coarse, the animal sickly and puny, and frequently carries four, or even six horns. The average weight of this poor breed, even when fat, is only 5 or 54 lbs. per quarter, or nearly about 20 lbs. per sheep. It is often much less, only amounting to 15 or 16 lbs.; and the price of the animal's carcass, skin and all, is from 10s. to 14s. Fat wedders have been sold in the Long Island at 7s. a head, and ewes at 5s. or 6s. The quantity of wool which the fleece yields is equally contemptible with the weight of the carcass. It rarely exceeds one pound weight, and is often short of even half that quantity. The quality of the wool is different on dif ferent parts of the body; and inattention to separating the fine from the coarse, renders the cloth made in the Hebrides very unequal and precarious in its texture. The average value of a fleece of this aboriginal Hebridean breed is from 8d. to 1s. sterling. From this account it is plain, that the breed in question has every chance of being specdily extirpated. (Macdonald's Report of the Hebrides, p. 447.)

7137. Of the Zetland sheep it would appear that there are two varieties, one of which is considered to be the native race, and carries very fine wool; but the number of these is much diminished, and in some places they have been entirely supplanted by foreign breeds; the other variety carries coarse wool above, and soft fine wool below. They have three different successions of wool yearly, two of which resemble long hair more than wool, and are termed by the common people fors and scudda. When the wool begins to loosen in the roots, which generally happens about the month of February, the hairs, or scudda, spring up; and when the wool is carefully plucked off, the tough hairs continue fast until the new wool grows up about a quarter of an inch in length, then they gradually wear off; and when the new fleece has acquired about two months' growth, the rough hairs, termed fors, spring up and keep root until the proper season for pulling it arrives, when it is plucked off along with the wool, and separated from it, at dressing the fleece, by an operation called forsing. The scudda remains upon the skin of the animal as if it were a thick coat, a fence against the inclemency of the seasons, which provident nature has furnished for supplying the want of the fleece. The wool is of various colours; the silver grey is thought to be the finest, but the black, the white, the mourat, or brown, is very little inferior, though the pure white is certainly the most valuable for all the finer purposes in which combing wool can be used. (Sir John Sinclair on the different Breeds of Sheep, &c. Appendix, No. 4. Account of the Shetland Sheep, by Thomas Johnston, p. 79.) In the northern part of Kincardineshire, as well as in most other of the northern counties, there is still a remnant of this ancient race, distinguished by the yellow colour of the face and legs, and by the dishevelled texture of the fleece, which consists in part of coarse, and in part of remarkably fine wool. Their average weight in that county is from seven to nine pounds a quarter, and the mutton is remarkably delicate and highly flavoured. (Kincardineshire Report, p. 385. Sup, E. Brit. art. Agr. 176.) The Highland Society of Scotland have offered premiums for the improvement of this breed, and some experiments are now in progress. See vol. vi. of their Transactions; and for a particular account of the breed itself, and its management, see Shirreff's Survey of Orkney and Shetland.

7138. The Spanish, or Merino breed, bears the finest wool of the sheep species; the

7139. The shape of this race is far from being perfect, according to the ideas of English breeders, with whom symmetry of proportion constitutes a principal criterion of excellence. The throatiness, or pen. dulous skin beneath the throat, which is usually accompanied with a sinking or hollow in the neck, presents a most offensive appearance, though it is much esteemed in Spain, as denoting both a tendency to fine wool, and a heavy fleece. Yet the Spanish sheep are level on the back, and behind the shoulders; and Lord Somerville has proved that there is no reason to conclude that deformity in shape is, in any degree, necessary to the production of fine wool.

7140. The fleece of the Merino sherp weighs, upon an average, from three to five pounds; in colour, it is unlike that of any English breed; there is on the surface of the best Spanish fleeces a dark brown tinge, approaching almost to a black, which is formed by dust adhering to the greasy properties of its pile; and the contrast between this tinge and the rich white colour below, as well as that rosy hue of the skin which denotes high proof, at first sight excites much surprise. The harder the fleece is, the more it resists any external pressure of the hand, the more close and fine will be the wool: here and there, indeed, a fine pile may be found in an open fleece, though this occurs but rarely. Nothing, however, has tended to render the Merino sheep more unsightly to the English eye than the large tuft of wool which covers the head: it is of a very inferior quality, and classes with what is produced on the hind legs; on which account it does not sort with any of the three qualities, viz. rafinos, or prime; finos, or second best; and tercenos, the inferior sort; and, consequently, is never exported from Spain.

7141. Merinos were first brought into England in 1788, but did not excite much interest before his Majesty's sales, which began in 1804: the desirable object of spreading them widely over the country, and subjecting them to the experiments of the most eminent professional breeders, has been greatly promoted by the institution of the Merino Society in 1811, to which belonged some of the greatest landholders, and the most eminent breeders in the kingdom. For some years past, this breed has been on the decline. (Sup. E. Brit. art. Agr.) A considerable importation was made by Colonel Downie, of Paisley, which distributed the breed throughout different parts of Scotland. See the Renfrewshire Survey. It is not understood that they have answered the expectations that were once formed of them; and I am not aware that there are any flocks in the possession of rent-paying farmers. The only successful experiment in Scotland seems to have been that of the late Mr. Malcolm Laing, in the Orkney Islands; and it is not the pure race, but crosses into other breeds. See the General Report of Scotland, vol. iii.

7142. The criteria of an excellent ram, as given by Culley, combines qualities which ought to be found in every breed of sheep cultivated for its flesh and wool. His head should be fine and small; his nostrils wide and expanded; his eyes prominent, and rather bold or daring; ears thin; his collar full from his breast and shoulders, but tapering gradually all the way to where the neck and head join, which should be very