INTRODUCTION. 7
of the mountains of North Wales or Scotland.
Neither can the South Down Sheep, with all their
excellence, supplant either those of the mountainous
parts of the kingdom or of the marshes of Romney.
Youatt says: "In all the different districts of the
kingdom, we find various breeds of sheep [and, he
might have added, cattle] beautifully adapted to the
locality which they occupy. No one knows their
origin : they are indigenous to the soil, climate, and
pasturage, the locality on which they graze : they seem
to have been formed by it and for it." This is
very true, and it would seem that less has been done
by the agriculturist than by nature. In consequence
of the large growth of cereals in Essex, and the
absence of hills and wastes, it has not been found
profitable to keep, for any great number of years, any
strain of animals in any particular district. The
result has been, therefore, that natural effects and
environments have not had sufficient time to produce
those modifications in the race which result in the
establishment of a localised race or breed. It is to
the constant changes in the numbers of the stock on
our corn lands, and to insufficient facilities for rearing
young stock, less than to the lack of skill and enterprise
amongst our agriculturists, that we may attribute
the non-localisation of a special breed of cattle
The large estuaries of Essex, to which allusion has