by way of ridicule, double Dorset, is streaked with a kind of blue mould, and Mr. Ottan says, this blue cheese is made by breaking and sprinkling the curds with flour after they have been pressed.

"Others ascribe the blueness of this cheese to the soil, but it does not appear to be known whether it is ascribable to the soil or the management; at any rate, it is deemed an excellent quality, and renders the cheese which possesses it far more valuable."

SHEEP. Breeds. The present Dorsetshire Breed.P. 393. "The county of Dorset seems to have been long in possession of the breed of sheep, which is remarkable for supplying the metropolis with house-lamb at a very early season."

The Portland Breed.-P. 394. "In the Isle of Portland, there is a very small breed of sheep, and there are a few of the same kind at Studland, but they are not kept generally, as might be inferred from Mr. Claridge's account, in the neighbourhood of Weymouth, the Isle of Purbeck, and about Wareham and Poole.'

"They are said by many to be the true Dorsetshire breed; the farmers, and breeders of sheep in that island, contend that there is none of the true breed in the rest of the county, all the others having been crossed by the Somersets and other kinds of horned sheep; but be this as it may, they are very much improved either by keeping or breeding. The Dorset sheep, when compared with such as are kept at present in the Isle of Portland, will weigh three times as much; and it is not to be wondered at, as it may be observed that there are 3000 sheep kept on the Island, which contains but 2800 acres, of which 800 are waste, 400 arable, 250 meadow, which leaves but 1350 acres of pasture for sheep, and this is very poor fand, rented at 7s. an acre. Thus it appears the land is stocked at the rate of two sheep and a quarter per acre, much of which has scarcely a blade of grass upon it. The Isle of Portland sheep are horned, remarkably small, and rather short in the carcass, when fat not weighing more than 10lbs. a quarter; their wool weighs from one pouud and a half to two pounds a fleece, and the price of the woolin 1806 was 50s. per wey of 30 lbs., but this year (1807) only 46s. a wey. Several of these sheep have black

noses, and are rather black intermixed with white near the hoof, in which case they are said to be brooked. The Somerset sheep are remarkably white in the face and the legs, and it is very seldom that a Dorset sheep is to be seen with the least inclination to any black hair on their face and legs, from which it seems probable they have been T 4

mixed.

mixed. It is very well authenticated, that the Portland sheep have had no cross of blood, and it is said to be as fine flavoured mutton as any in the kingdom.'

P. 396. "The Portland mutton is sold by the quarter at 10s. 6d. in general. It is never weighed, but would come to Is. a pound when common mutton is only 7d.; it seldom weighs more than 10 lbs. a quarter."

The Management of Sheep.-P. 411. "The general. Management of Sheep in this county is very uniform. The lambs which are bred for the regular supply of the flock, are dropped at Christmas, or soon afterwards, and the couples are kept in the best ewe-leazes, &c. on grass, hay, and turnips if necessary, and such as have watered meadows, depasture their sheep there, on the early grass, till Old May-day, when the lambs are weaned, and the sheep go to fold; but sometimes the two latter circumstances take place as early as Lady-day. The ewes are folded constantly, and kept on the downs, on artificial grasses, and other pastures, till near the ensuing Christmas, at which time they have another crop of lambs, the rams having been put to the flock about the end of July.

"The lambs are generally shorn about Midsummer, at the same time as the rest of the flock, and between this time and Michaelmas the pur lambs are sold to dealers, &c. from Somersetshire, and other districts, where breeding flocks are not so generally kept as in the upland parts of Dorset. In the summer and autumn, the chilver lambs are frequently folded, being fed on grass, rape, turnips, and hay, from the latter end of summer till the following spring. They take the name of ewe-hogs sometime in the autumn, at which time many of them are sent to the Vale of Blackmoor to be wintered, and the rest of them consume the greater part of the turnips in the county, with a portion of hay, made from artificial grasses, and stacked in the middle of the turnip fallows for that purpose.

1

"In the next summer they are put to the ram, and they produce a crop of lambs at the age of two, three, and four years successively, under a similar system of management as before described, and are called by the name of twotoothed, four-toothed, and six-toothed ewes.

"When they enter on their fifth year, the lambs are weaned by the end of April, and the ewes are depastured on water-meadows and the best ewe-leazes, and folding is omitted, to induce them to take the ram in May and June, and get them in condition for sale at the ensuing Michaelmas; at which time they are almost invariably sold at Weyhill in Hampshire. It is a general custom in this

county,

1

county, to colour the old ewes all over with reddle, which is mixed with water in a tub and put on with a mop; and no other reason is assigned for this custom, than to distinguish them from the Somerset sheep, which are brought to the same fair. It is a general plan, to endeavour to procore the lambs to fall as soon as is convenient after the dealers and graziers who purchased them at Weyhill have disposed of them in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, which they supply with the early house-lamb,-a luxury, which sometimes produces in a few weeks more money to the grazier than the ewe cost, in repayment for a considerable quantity of care and expense." This is circumstantial, praiseworthy report.

Washing Sheep.-P. 418. "This necessary operation is performed in some parts of the county by women, who stand in the water, and hold the sheep under spouts that convey the stream upon them, in the same manner as is generally done by men in other parts of the kingdom" (?); " but of late years a new and easy method has been adopted at Frampton, Abbotsbury, and many other places. A pit is made in any convenient part of a stream of water, capable of containing about a score of sheep, the sides of the pit are walled, and there are proper conveniences for letting in fresh water, and the sheep are merely put into the pit, and pushed about from side to side, with crooks, poles, &c. for two or three minutes. Mr. Goodenough, Mr. Groves, and other respectable farmers who have tried this plan, have no hesitation in saying, that the sheep are thus made as clean" (?)" as by the old tedious and disagreeable method, and with a great deal more expedition."

Folding Sheep.-P. 348. "The Sheep-fold is probably held in as high estimation in this county as in any part of the world. It is considered by most of the farmers not only as a manure of a very useful kind (which no person will dispute), but as an indispensable requisite in the cultivation of the arable land, and without which the produce would decline very considerably."

P. 349." It is remarked by Mr. Bridge of Winford, as a common opinion, that the gund, shab, or scab, in sheep, is caused by folding too thickly, and consequently that many prefer folding thinly, and go twice, or even three times over the ground. This gentleman is of opinion, that 1000 sheep should manure an acre in a night, which may be called halffolding, and is worth about 20s. This is very near the opinion entertained by some farmers in Bedfordshire, that the manure of sheep is worth a farthing each per sheep per night."

P. 409. "There is probably no part of England where

the

the practice of sheep-folding is more admired, or more earnestly pursued, than in the county of Dorset. There are but few farmers in the upland districts who keep wethers, but such as do, fold them continually either on the arable or green land, from one end of the year to the other. The ewes are mostly folded from Lady-day till they are ready to drop their lambs, which is about Christmas, after which time they are thought to deserve a more tender and careful treatment."

Yet, after reciting the pratices and decided opinions of the first occupiers, and after the above general remarks, the Reporter has had the temerity to set up the following groundless notions, against the long-established practice of a County,

P. 410. "The custom of putting the sheep into a fold, where the land is tolerably level, and where the manure is wanted on the very spot that produces the grass on which the sheep are depastured, appears to be a very useless practice, calculated to destroy a great many hurdles, and sometimes much grass, to make additional labour for the shepherd, to harass the sheep, and cause distempers amongst them, to hinder their feeding when their appetite incites them to it, to prevent their food from being converted to: nutriment, and to expose them in winter to all the severities of the season."

HAMPSHIRE.

HAMPSHIRE.

THERE

HERE are very few separable and entire DITRICTS, either natural or agricultural, in Hampshire. Its Chalk Hills form but a link of a long chain of similar calcarious heights. The lower lands, on the northern margin of the County, unite with the southern bank of the vale of Newbury, and the forest lands of Berkshire. And the Heathlands, on the eastern border, are the outskirts of those of Surrey and Sussex. The New Forest, and the southern foot of the Chalk Hills (northeastward of the estuary of Southhampton) are tolerably well defined districts.

* The Isle of Wight is itself a country ; -abounding with natural and agricultural districts; bearing, as I have elsewhere intimated, a striking resemblance of the ISLE OF ISLES. For a prose description of that lovely Islet, see my SOUTHERN COUNTIES.

The COUNTY of SOUTHAMPTON has had no less than four pens employed, by the Board of Agriculture, to give a view of its Natural, Political, and Rural Economics.

Messrs. DRIVER's Report made its appearance, in July, 1794. The Rev. - WARNER'S Isle of Wight, and the "Postscript" of the SECRETARY of the BOARD, would seem to have come out, about the same time, as the three, in the copy which lies before me, are paged in continuation, and stitched up together; the whole making seventyeight octavo pages, on quarto paper, only.

The last, but not the least, either in size or quality, is the Yeprinted," otherwise published Report, on octavo paper, by Mr. VANCOUVER,-the Reporter of Cambridgeshire and Essex. See the EASTERN and the MIDLAND Departments.