morning's milk being mixed with that of the preceding evening, previously warmed. The general weight is sixty pounds each cheese.

6353. Dunlop cheese, so named from the parish of Dunlop in Ayrshire, where it was originally made; the whole of the cream goes with the curd; the cheeses are from twenty to sixty pounds weight, and no coloring matter is used. A cheese in every respect similar is made in Derbyshire, excepting that these last are generally of a smaller size.

6354. Gloucester cheese is in very considerable demand from its mild taste, which suits most palates, especially those of the young and of simple habits: there are two kinds, double and single, the first made from the milk and cream, and the latter with the milk deprived of about half the cream: the latter are of course the least valuable; but as they may be often mistaken for the former, upright dairymen, Marshal observes, impress a heart-shaped stamp upon them to distinguish them from the former. They are made of various sizes, from twenty to seventy, or even eighty pounds weight, but generally from fifty to sixty pounds.

6355. Green, or sage cheese, is made by steeping over night in a proper quantity of milk, two parts of sage, one part of marigold leaves, and a little parsley, after they have been bruised. On the following morning, the greened milk is strained off, and mixed with about one third of the whole quantity intended to be run or coagulated. The green and white milks are run separately, the two curds being kept apart until they be ready for vatting: these may be mixed, either evenly and intimately, or irregularly and fancifully, according to the pleasure of the manufacturer. The management is the same as for common cheese. Green cheeses are made in the vale of Gloucester, as also in Wiltshire.

6356. Lincolnshire cheese is made by adding the cream of one meal's milk to that which comes immedi ately from the cow; it is pressed gently two or three times, and is turned for a few days previously to being used. It is chiefly made in spring, but the richest is that made in autumn. It will not keep above three months.

6357. Norfolk cheese is made from the whole of the milk and cream; the size is from thirty to fifty pounds; it is generally colored yellow, and is reckoned a good keeping cheese.

6558. Soft, or slip-coat cheese, is made from new milk hot from the cow, and the afterings; and what is required to make one pound of butter, will, in general, make one pound of cheese: this is a small soft rich cheese, which must be used immediately.

6359. Stilton cheese, which, from its peculiar richness and flavor, has been called the parmesan of England, is made in the following manner: -the night's cream is put to the morning's milk, with the rennet ; when the curd is come, it is not broken as is usual with other cheese, but is taken out whole, and put into a sieve to drain gradually; while draining, it is gently pressed till it becomes firm and dry, when it is placed in a vat, a box made exactly to fit it; as it is so extremely rich, that without this precaution, it is apt to bulge out, and break asunder. It is afterwards kept on dry boards, and turned daily, with cloth binders round it, which are tightened as occasion requires. After being taken out of the vat, the cheese is closely bound with cloth till it acquires sufficient firmness to support itself: when these cloths are removed, each cheese is brushed once every day for two or three months, and if the weather be moist, twice every day; the tops and bottoms are treated in a similar manner daily before the cloths are taken off Stilton cheese derives its name from the town where it is almost exclusively sold; it is made principally in Leicestershire, though there are also many who manufacture it in the counties of Huntingdon, Rut land, and Northampton. Sometimes the cheeses are made in a net, resembling a cabbage net, which gires them the form of an acorn, but these are neither so good nor so richly flavored, as those made in vats, having a thicker coat, and being deficient in that mellowness which causes them to be in such general request. (Bath Papers, vol. iii. p. 152, 153.) Stilton cheese is not reckoned to be sufficiently mellow for cutting, until it is two years old, and is not saleable unless it is decayed, blue, and moist. In order to mature them the more rapidly, it is a frequent practice to place the cheeses in buckets, which are covered over with horse-dung. Wine is also reputed to be added to the curd, in order to accelerate the ripening of the cheese.

6360. Cottenham cheese, from the town of that name in Cambridgeshire, is a thicker kind of cream cheese than the Stilton; its superior delicacy and flavor are attributed to the fragrant nature of the herbage on the commons on which the cows are pastured, and according to Professor Martyn, to the prevalence of Poa aquatica and pratensis.

6361. Suffolk or skim cheese is made of skimmed milk; it forms a part of every ship's stores, not being so much affected by heat as richer cheese, nor so liable to decay in long voyages.

6362. Wiltshire cheese is made of new milk coagulated as it comes from the cow, sometimes a small quantity of skimmed milk is added. In some dairies it is manufactured in winter as well as summer; in the former case it is liable to become scurfy and white coated; the last of which defects is frequently concealed by a coat of red paint.

6363. Of foreign cheeses, the most common is the Dutch cheese; this is prepared much in the same manner as the Cheshire cheese, excepting that muriatic acid is used instead of rennet, which renders it pungent, and preserves it from mites; that of Gouda is preferred 6364. Parmesan cheese was formerly supposed to be made from the milk of goats, but it is merely a skim-milk cheese, the curd hardened by heat, well salted, pressed, and dried, long kept, and rich in flavor from the rich herbage of the meadows of the Po, where the cows are pastured.

6365. The process, according to Pryce, (Bath Papers, vol. vii.) is as follows: the evening's milk, after having been skimmed in the morning, and standing till ten o'clock, and the morning's milk skimmed about two hours after it is drawn from the cow, are mixed together. The mixture is then suspended in a copper cauldron over a wooden fire (fig. 33.), and frequently stirred till it attains about 829 of Fahrenheit; the rennet is then put in, and the copper being removed from the fire, the coagulation quickly takes place, and the curd is afterwards worked with a stick till it is reduced to a small grain. The whey now occupies the surface, and a part of it being taken out, the cauldron is again turned over the fire, and its contents brought to nearly a boiling heat. A little saffron is now added to impart color, the whole being all the while well stirred, and the superintendant examining it from time to time with his finger and thumb, to ascertain the exact moment when the curd shall have become sufficiently solid. When this is the case, the caul dron is removed from the fire, and the curd allowed to subside; three fourths of the whey is then drawn off, water poured round the bottom of the cauldron outside to cool it, so as to admit of a cloth being passed below the curd, which is thus brought up and placed in a tub to clear. When drained, it is put into a wooden hoop, and about half a hundred weight laid on it for half an hour; the cloth is then removed, and the cheese being replaced in the hoop is laid on a shelf; here it remains for two or three days, at the end of which, it is sprinkled over with salt; this sprinkling is repeated every second day fr about thirty days if it be summer, and for about forty or fifty-five days if it be winter, after which, no further attention is required. The best Parmesan cheese is that which has been kept for three or four years, but none is ever carried to market for sale, until it has been kept at least six months.

6366. Swiss cheese is of several varieties, mostly of skimmed or partially skimmed milk, and manufactured like the Parmesan. Its varied and rich flavor is more owing to the herbage of the pastures, than the mode of making; and some sorts, as the Gruyère

(so called from the bailiwick of that name in the canton of Fribourg), are flavored by the dried herb of Melilotus officinalis (fig. 46.) in powder. Gruyere cheeses weigh from forty to sixty pounds each, and are packed in casks containing ten cheeses each, and exported to the most distant countries. This cheese requires to be kept in a damp place, and should frequently be washed with white wine, to preserve it from the depredations of insects. Neufchatel is celebrated for a very fine sort of cheese made there, which in shape resembles a wash-hand ball.

6367. Westphalia cheese is of the skim-milk kind, and of a different character from any of those hithertc described. The cream is allowed to remain on the milk till the latter is in a sub-acid state; it is then removed, and the milk placed near a fire spontaneously to coagulate. The curd is then put into a coarse bag, and loaded with ponderous stones to express the whey; in this dry state it is rubbed between the hands, and crumbled into an empty clean milk vat, where it remains from three to eight days according as the cheese is intended to be strong or mild. During this part of the process, which is called mellowing, the curd undergoes the putrid fermentation, and acquires a coat or skin on the top, before it is taken out of the vessel, and kneaded into balls or cylinders with the addition of a considerable portion of carraways, salt, and butter; or occasionally a small quantity of pounded pepper and cloves. When over-mellowed a third part of fresh curds, likewise crumbled into small pieces, is superadded, to prevent or correct its putrid tendency. As the halls or cheeses do not exceed three or four ounces each in weight, they soon dry in the open air, and are then fit for use. When nearly dry they are sometimes, for the palate of epicures, suspended in a wood fire chimney, in a net, for several weeks or months; and both their taste and flavor are said to be remarkably improved, whether kept in a dry air, or subjected to the action of smoke. This sort of cheese, M. Hochheimer, who describes it, affirms to be preferable to the Dutch, Swiss, and even Parmesan cheese. It is sometimes to be had in London, but is not very common.

6368. Potatoe 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 flavor 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 potatoe 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.

6369. 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.

6370. Curds and whey is merely coagulated new milk stirred up, and the curd and whey eaten together with or without sugar and salt.

6371. Curds and cream; here the whey is removed and cream substituted with or without sugar. The milk coagulated is often previously skimmed.

6372. 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.

6373. 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. 6574. Devonshire cream, is a term applied in the county of that name, sometimes to sour curd, and sometimes to sour cream; in either case mixed with new milk or fresh cream, and eaten with sugar like the Corstorphin cream.

6375. 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.

6376, Hatted kitt, a gallon of sour butter-milk 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.

6377. 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 the sour milk.

6378. 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.

6379. Butter-milk, 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 com→ mon diluter to porridge, potatoes, oat cakes, pease cakes, and other food of the laboring classes, and especially of the farm servants. In Scotland the same thing used formerly to be the case, but the practice there has within the last twenty years become nearly the same as in England; in the Orkney islands, and other northern parts of Britain, as well as in Ireland. Butter-milk is sometimes kept till it undergoes the vinous fermentation, when it is used to procure intoxication.

6380. Whey, when new and of a pale green color, 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 butter-milk; and man, who in every state of civili

zation 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. - Ovis aries, L.; Mammalia Pecora, L., and Ruminaleæ, Cuv. Brebis, Fr.; Schaf, Ger.; Oveja, Span. and Pecora, Ital.

6381. 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 O. aries, or common sheep, there are three other species, the O. Ammon 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.

6382. The common sheep in a wild state prefers open plains, where it herds together in small flocks, which 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, and even a bull has been felled by a stroke received between his eyes as he was lowering his head to receive his adversary on the horns and toss him in the air. 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; giddiness, consumption, scab, dropsy, and worms frequently seizing upon and destroying it. Of all disorders the most fatal is owing to vast numbers of worms of the genus fasciola, which are found in the liver and gall-bladder. They are of a flat form, of an oval shape, with slightly pointed extremities, and bear a general resemblance to the seeds of a gourd. The fly is another formidable enemy, and is often fatal in the course of twenty-four hours, breeding within the skull of the animal. To extricate the sheep from this danger, the French shepherds apply the trephine instrument, without the smallest hesitation, and with the greatest dispatch and success.

6383. 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 the 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 favorable to those who exercised it, and highly advantageous to the public.

SECT. I. Of the Varieties of Sheep.

6384. 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.

6385. 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 of districts in which such species are supposed to abound, to be in greatest perfection, or to have originated.

6586. The long-wooled British sheep are chiefly the Teeswater, the *old and Leicester, the Devonshire nots, Exmoor, and the Heath sheep.

new

6387. The short-wooled sheep are chiefly the Dorsetshire, *Hereford or Ryeland, the *South Down, the Norfolk, the Cheviot, the Shetland sheep, and the Merinos.

6388. 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.

6389. 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.

6390. The long-wooled 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 Lincolrs or old Leicesters in particular, wool seems to be an object paramount even to the carcase; with the breeders of the Leicesters, on the other hand, the carcase 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.

6391. The Lincolnshire, or old Leicestershire breed, have no horns, the face is white and the carcase long and thin; the ewes weighing from 14 to 20 lbs., and the threeyear-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 eight to 14 lbs. per fleece, and covering a slow-feeding, coarse-grained carcase 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 marshlands 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 meantime, 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-wooled 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.

6392. The Teeswater sheep (fig. 666.) differ from the Lincolnshire in their wool not being so long and heavy; in standing upon higher, though finer boned legs, supporting a thicker, firmer, heavier carcase, much wider upon their backs and sides; and in affording a fatter and finer-grained carcase 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 originally 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 long-horned. They are not so compact, nor so complete in their form, as the Leicestershire sheep; nevertheless, 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. 6393. The Dishley, or new Leicester breed (fig. 667.), is distinguished from other long-wooled 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 flavor, above all other large long-wooled sheep, so as to fetch nearly as good a price, in many markets, as the mutton of the small Highland and short-wooled breeds. The weight of ewes, three or four years old, is from 18 to 26 lbs. a quarter,

667

and of wethers, two years old, from 20 to 30lb. The wool, on an average, is from 6 to 8 lbs. a fleece. (Culley, p. 106.)

6394. The Devonshire Nots (fig. 668.) have white faces and legs, thick necks, narrow backs, and back bone 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 wooled sheep, known by the name of the Ermoor 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 carcase 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.

6395. The shorter wooled 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 inclosed arable land, on the one hand, and not sufficiently hardy for healthy mountainous districts, on the other. To this class belong the breeds of Dorset, Hereford, Sussex, Norfolk, and Cheviot.

6396. The Dorsetshire sheep (fig. 669.) are mostly horned, white faced, stand upon high small white legs, and are long and thin in the carcase. 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-flavored. 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.

6397. 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.)

670

6398. The Herefordshire breed (fig. 670.) is known by the want of horns, and their having white legs and faces, the wool growing close to their eyes. The carcase is tolerably well formed, weighing from 10 to 18lbs. a quarter, and bearing very fine short wool, from 14 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. 6399. The South Down sheep (fig. 671.) 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 24 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 flavor. 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.

6400. In the Norfolk sheep the face is black, horns large and spiral; the carcase 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