interest to conceal the future consequences, particularly from his landlord.

Purposes for which sheep are kept in this district.— The best clue to this enquiry is an investigation of the purposes for which sheep are kept in this district. The first and principal of these, is undoubtedly the dung of the sheep-fold, and the second is the wool. The improvement of the carcase was not heretofore thought a primary object, and perhaps is in some degree incompatible with the great object of this district, viz. the hardiness of the animal necessary to enable it to get its food on a closefed pasture; to walk two or three miles for that food, and to carry its dung the same distance back to fold: and the breeding lambs out of a flock of sheep of this kind, was heretofore looked upon as a necessary consequence, rather than as a primary cause of keeping such flock. A supply of ewe lambs, for the keeping up this stock, was necessary. The wether lambs lived equally hard with the ewes during the summer, and were sold in the autumn'; for the wether stock of those that had no convenience of breeding, and such of of the ewes as were thought too old to breed, were sold off for fatting. On this system the carcase either of the ewe or lamb was very little attended to.

"But the practice of the breeders in this district is now almost totally altered. The first and great object at this time, is the improvement of the carcase, both of the ewe and lamb, and particularly of the latter; and the attention is directed much more to the quality of the lambs they breed, than to the quantity.

"The pride of having fine lambs, and consequently of having the name of selling them for the highest prices, certainly tends to lessen the stock of breeding ewes, and to the exclusion of old ewes from that stock; and as such a stock will not live hard enough to keep the downs close fed, farmers have been induced to break those downs up, under an idea of improving their sheep-feed.

"A great portion of this kind of land (as will be afterwards explained) produces great crops, at first, both of corn and grasses, but being thin and loose in its staple, is soon exhausted with a repetition of crops; the grasses that were sown with the last crop soon wear out, the coarse natural grasses, particularly the black couch or couchy bent, (Agrostis Stolonifera'), and that in a starved reduced state, take possession of, and cover the land, and a young tender-mouthed flock of sheep, will rather starve than feed on it.

"This evil has grown so serious, that many farmers who had the misfortune to find their downs in this state, have been

Q 3

been obliged to drop breeding entirely, and as they must have sheep to dung their land, are obliged to keep a flock of wether sheep, which they renew from time to time, by buying of their breeding neighbours."

Breed of Sheep.-P. 22. The kind of sheep which are chiefly kept in South-Wiltshire, is what has been long known in Smithfield-market by the name of the Wiltshire Horned Sheep. Their wool is moderately fine, and particularly useful, being the kind of which the second, or what is called the super-broad cloth from 10s.. to 12s. 6d. a yard), is generally made. The fleeces of a flock of Wiltshire ewes, usually weigh, from two pounds, to two pounds and an half each-seldom higher than three pounds. The value of the wool has been for a few years past, from ten-pence to thirteen-pence per pound-of course, the average produce of each fleece, has been about two shillings and six-pence. The weight of the carcases of the wethers, when fat, is usually from sixty-five to an hundred pounds."

P. 23. "Till within these few years, the sheep, in general, were certainly smaller than they are now.

"The alterations that have taken place, have been principally by breeding them longer in their legs-higher and heavier in their fore-quarters; perfectly white in their faces and legs; with Roman noses, full eyes, and large open nostrils, wide in their bosoms, and little or no wool on their bellies; in fact, by making them a much larger, handsomer animal.

"The opponents of the present kind of sheep say, that those alterations have made them less hardy, and worse nurses, and in particular so very nice in their food, that they will starve on the same kind of land, on which the old sort of sheep lived well; and that they are subject to disorders (particularly to the disorder called the goggles) which were not known till this alteration of the stock took place. They also say, that this new kind of sheep, being so much nicer in their food, and rejecting the feed of the downs, on which the chief dependence for sheep food is, have suffered the herbage to grow gradually coarser and coarser; and that the farmers, in attempting to remedy this evil, by shortening their stock of sheep, have made it worse; it being a wellknown fact, that the closer the downs are fed, the more stock they will keep.

Under these ideas, many attempts have been lately made, to introduce new kinds of sheep, and particularly the South-Down sheep from Sussex."

P. 24. "How far this sort will answer, time and experience must determine. It has already so far gained ground, that although they were only introduced into Wiltshire (by

Mr.

Mr. Mighell, of Kennett) in 1789; the number kept in the county is already increased to fifteen thousand, and is daily increasing."

P. 27. "From what has been said respecting the sheep stock of this district, it is clear, that no fair conclusion can ever be made, as to the relative merits of the different kinds, until the contending parties are agreed on the purposes for which such sheep are kept. Many who have argued very violently on the subject, have never considered, that "sheep bred for folding,' are bred to walk: sheep bred for fatting,' are bred to stand still. The first was the great object for which the old Wiltshire farmers bred sheep; the latter seems to be, in a great measure, the object of the breeders of the present day."

In what appears, aforegoing, it is seen that Mr. Davis was a strenuous advocate for the SHEEPFOLD; and, consequently, for a suitable FOLDING BREED. It is a point which he has urged, again and again. In a section of his work, entitled "beneficial Practices,"-after mentioning the su periority of the customs of Wiltshire over those of Hampshire &c., he has made the following remarks:

P. 102. "This custom appears to be the use of the sheep-fold;' and that not merely to keep the sheep from running away in the night, but with a view to manure the land.

"The pride of sheep stock,' which must inevitably tend to the subversion of the sheep-fold, infected those counties first. It is already gone too far in Wiltshire; and those who have attempted to stem the torrent of fashion, by introducing the South-Down sheep, deserve the thanks of the landowners of the county.

Overplowing and understocking, in high exposed situations, and particularly where the land is light and loose, must always produce bad effects; and these are the natural consequences of keeping flocks of sheep for beauty, in countries where they ought to be kept entirely for use.

And under the head, " Improvements suggested," are the subjoined.-P. 104. "As to sheep in particular, this pride of stock, however commendable, and however profitable it may be in countries that are adapted to it, does not seem at all suited to the bleak hills of Wiltshire.

"Warmth and shelter, are as necessary to produce perfect symmetry in the parts of an animal, as to unfold the wings of a butterfly, or expand the petals of a carnation.' Where these requisites to animal perfection cannot be had, it is useless to attempt breeding for beauty.

"But it may be asked, whether those requisites cannot be had, and warm sheltered situations be found in Wiltshire? "Undoubtedly

Q4

"Undoubtedly they may; but not in a sheep-fold on Wiltshire hills; and particularly at that time of the year when the fold is almost invaluable the fold of ewes and lambs for a barley crop.***

"It can never be too often repeated, that so long as South Wiltshire remains a corn country, the sheep-fold must be the sheet-anchor of its husbandry; and until a new method can be found to manure its hill land, equally efficacious with the sheep-fold, breeding sheep, as a science, solely for the beauty of the shape, can never be introduced with success into this district.".

ol agree with Mr. Davis in those sentiments. I will thereafore addit is the strong, hardy, long-established, REAL Sussex Down sheep, a breed which I have long been of opinion are preferable to the enormous "Wiltshires," for high, shelterless, chalk hills;-but certainly not the pampered delicate, beautified, modern variety,-that can answer the purpose of the Wiltshire Down farmers. Valuable and proper as the new sort of sheep, that have of late years been loudly praised, under the name of "South Downs," may be to "stand still to lie quietly in a well herbaged, well sheltered pasture, they are altogether unfit for an alpine climature, to feed on unpalable alpine herbage, "to walk two or three miles for that food, and to carry their dung, the same distance, back to the fold."

THIS portion of Somersetshire is inseparably united with

South Wiltshire and the County of Dorset, with which it forms the western extreme of the SOUTHERN Department.

Its natural and agricultural DISTRICTS are two-namely, the Vale of Ilchester, which for extent and richness, combined, is scarcely to be equalled in the island; and the range of Limestone Hills, that form the eastern bank of that vale; terminating with the Sherborne hills in Dorsetshire.

THE REPORTER.

THE only Report to the Board, that was sent in from Somersetshire, was by Mr. BILLINGSLEY of Ashwick Grove, * near Shipton Mallet, in that County:-a man of superior mind, and much general information, with some share of experience in agriculture, as an amateur of the highest class; but, judging from the evidence which appears in his Report, he was not radically versed in the more orthodox points of practice.

For remarks on Mr. B's Report, concerning the other districts of Somersetshire, see the WESTERN or DAIRY DEPARTMENT, article North Somersetshire; and the PENINSULAR DEPARTMENT, article West Somersetshire, ensuing.

NATURAL ECONOMY.

SOILS

OILS.-P. 205. "Between Yeovil and Taunton, including the parishes of Martock, Puckington, Barrington, Kingsbury-Episcopi, Lambrook, South-Petherton, Ilminster, Hinton St. George, and the adjacent places, lies a tract of strong loamy land, from sixteen to thirty inches deep, on a substance of clay: a more pleasant country can rarely be found."

Those places are scattered on the western margin of the VALE of ILCHESTER; and the brief passage, in which they are enumerated, may be said to contain the whole of the information of value, that appears in the Report under review, concerning that extensive, fertile, and truly agricultural district.

RURAL