[727] Of which 6,000,000 lb. came from Spain.  The first Spanish Merino sheep were introduced into Australia in 1797.  See Cunningham, Industry and Commerce, ii. 538, and cf. below.

[728] R.A.S.E.  Journal (1890), p. 29.

[729] Board of Agriculture Returns (1907), p. 187.

[730] Cf.  Appendix IV.

[731] In 1907 the average wheat crop was 33.96 bushels per acre in England and 39.18 in Scotland.  The average yield per acre of wheat in Holland is 34.1 bushels; Belgium, 34; Germany, 30.3; Denmark, 28.2 France, 197.

[732] The total number of sheep in Great Britain in 1877 was 28,161,164; in 1907, 26,115,455.  In 1688 Youatt estimates it at 12,000,000; In 1741, 17,000,000; in 1800 26,000,000; in 1830 32,000,000.

[733] Unfortunately the class 50 acres and under at this time included holdings under one acre, so that it is useless for the comparison of the number of small holdings at the two dates, for in 1907 none appear under one acre.

CHAPTER XXIII

MODERN FARM LIVE STOCK

CART HORSES

Arthur Young at the end of the eighteenth century found only two kinds of cart horses worthy of mention, the Shire and the Suffolk Punch; to-day, besides these two, we have the Clydesdale.

The Shire horse, according to Sir Walter Gilbey, is the purest survival of the Great Horse of mediaeval times, known also as the War Horse, and the Old English Black Horse.  It is the largest of draught horses, attaining a height of 17 to 17.3 hands and a weight of 2,200 lb., its general characteristics being immense strength, symmetrical proportions, bold free action, and docile disposition.  In 1878 the Shire Horse Society was established to improve the breed, and distribute sound and healthy sires through the country.

The Clydesdale, whose native home is the valley of the Clyde, is not so large as the Shire, but strong, active, and a fine worker.  They are either derived from a cross between Flemish stallions and Lanarkshire mares, or are an improvement of the old Lanark breed.[734]

The Suffolk Punch looks what he is-a thorough farm horse.  He stands lower than the two former breeds, but weighs heavily, often 2,000 lb.  They are generally chestnut or light dun in colour, and their legs are without the feather of the Clydesdale and Shire.  They have been long associated with Suffolk, and were mentioned by Camden in 1586.  According to the Suffolk Stud Book of 1880, the Suffolk horses of to-day are with few exceptions the descendants in the direct male line of the original breed described by Arthur Young.

CATTLE