This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1862* Excerpt: ...which I have taken from the Irish reports. The returns for 1870 are not yet published by the Board of Trade. These figures are possibly below the mark, owing to the occasional reluctance of the farmers to furnish returns; in such cases careful estimates are supplied. Although it is to be hoped this feeling will soon ...
Read More
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1862* Excerpt: ...which I have taken from the Irish reports. The returns for 1870 are not yet published by the Board of Trade. These figures are possibly below the mark, owing to the occasional reluctance of the farmers to furnish returns; in such cases careful estimates are supplied. Although it is to be hoped this feeling will soon wear off, the returns meanwhile do not differ from the reality to any important extent. The number of sheep being thus determined, it only remains to ascertain the average weights of fleece of the different breeds, to arrive at a pretty close estimate of the clip. Mr. Luccock, in the year 1800, published a detailed estimate of the weights of fleeces, which was revised in 1828 by Mr. Hubbard, and again in 1840. In 1851 Mr. Thomas Southey, after extensive inquiries, took the average for the United Kingdom at five pounds. Since the earlier of those dates, considerable changes have taken place in the actual weights of fleece, owing to improved breeding; and even during the last twenty years this has been the case with the sheep bred in agricultural districts, though not so much with those bred on pasture lands. The weights, moreover, are considered to vary from year to year as much as from a quarter to half a pound per fleece, according to the seasons and breed. I am indebted to Mr. Legg, of Bermondsey, and Messrs. J. and J. Hubbard, of Bradford, for much important information on this subject, and the latter gentlemen write, that "in all the counties "suitable for the heavier class of sheep, the weight of fleece has "very considerably increased during the last twenty years, it having "been found to the profit of the grower to cross with Leicester, &c, "sheep, both as regards the wool and the mutton. A considerable "...
Read Less
