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In countries ill cultivated, and therefore but thinly inhabited,

the price of the wool and the hide bears always a much greater

proportion to that of the whole beast, than in countries where,

improvement and population being further advanced, there is more

demand for butcher's meat. Mr Hume observes, that in the Saxon

times, the fleece was estimated at two-fifths of the value of the

whole sheep and that this was much above the proportion of its

present estimation. In some provinces of Spain, I have been

assured, the sheep is frequently killed merely for the sake of

the fleece and the tallow. The carcase is often left to rot upon

the ground, or to be devoured by beasts and birds of prey. If

this sometimes happens even in Spain, it happens almost

constantly in Chili, at Buenos Ayres, and in many other parts of

Spanish America, where the horned cattle are almost constantly

killed merely for the sake of the hide and the tallow.