134 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ceding pages. It has quite superseded the old breed of this name. 

 His aim was to produce sheep which would give the greatest 

 amount of meat in the shortest time on a given amount of food, and 

 for early maturity and disposition to fatten, it still ranks among 

 the highest. The objections to the breed for our situation are that 

 they are not hardy enough for the climate, and require richer 

 pastures and more abundant food than most Maine farmers can 

 supply. Its chief value here is for crossing upon ordinary sheep 

 for lambs and mutton. 



The CoTSwoLDs derive their name from a low range of hills in 

 Gloucestershire. These have long been noted for the numbers and 

 excellence of the sheep there maintained, and are fio called from 

 Cote, a sheepfold, and Would, a naked hill. An old writer says : 

 " In these woulds they feed in great numbers flocks of sheep, long 

 necked and square of bulk and bone, by reason (as is commonly 

 thought) of the weally and hilly situation of their pastures, whose 

 wool, being most fine and soft, is held in passing great account 

 amongst all nations." Since his time, however, great changes 

 have passed both upon the sheep and the district they inhabit. 

 The improved Cotswolds are among the largest British breeds, long 

 wooled, prolific, good nurses, and of early maturity. More robust, 

 hardy and less liable to disease than the Leicesters, of fine sj^mmetry 

 and carrying great weight and light offal, they are among the most 

 popular of large mutton sheep.* 



The South Down is an ancient British breed, taking its name 

 from a chalky range of liills in Sussex and other counties in Eng- 

 land about sixty miles in length, known as the South Downs, by 

 the side of which is a tract of land of ordinary fertility and well 

 calculated for sheep walks, and on wliicli probabl}'' more tliaii a 

 million of this breed of sheep are pastured. The flock tended by 

 the "Shepherd of Salisbury Plain," of whose earnest piety and 

 simple faith Hannah More has told us in her widely circulated 

 tract, were South Downs. Formerly these sheep possessed few 

 of the attractions they now present. About the year 1782 Mr. 

 John Elhiian of Glynde turned his attention to their improvement. 



*At the last show of the York rounty AirriiMiltural Society, some very sui)erior 

 specimens of this brceil were exhibiteil liy Mr. Henry .Jordan of Kcnnebunk, who 

 obtained them at a recent sale of Geo. C. Hitchcock of New Preston, Conn., whose 

 flock has been rejjuteil tlie best in tlie country. Tlie buck shown, " Ceili-ic, .Jr.," 

 was sircil by imported buck " Ce<lric," figured in the last volume of Agriculture 

 of Maine, (see frontispiece to abstract of returns for 18.59,) and is nearly a fac simile 

 of his sire. He brought tiie highest price of any one disijosed of at the sale — ^150. 



