146 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



indispensable agent for that purpose. The lecturer then 

 entered into the history of the modern sheep, and to the 

 varieties which experience had proved to be the best 

 adapted for the requirements of the present day, namely, 

 the Southdown, the Leicester, the Cotswold, and the Hamp- 

 shire Downs. Amongst the finer qualities, the Southdown 

 held the foremost rank where the taste of the epicure is to 

 be consulted, old mutton required, parks to be fed ; or on 

 arable lands of a dry subsoil, in a warm locality, these sheep 

 might graze with as great advantage as any other. They 

 would also do well long distances without injurj'', making a 

 close bite on short herbage, but in the winter season were 

 not so good proof against our fickle climate in exposed situ- 

 ations. The Leicester, for grazing purposes, on rich pastures, 

 where no folding was required, the temperature warm, and 

 weight of carcass, with early maturity in view, were per- 

 haps to be preferrea to all otiiers, especially when they re- 

 membered that this breed had partaken, with other breeds, 

 of the improvements of the day ; for they no longer found 

 them as in the days of Bakewell, beautiful indeed in sym- 

 metry and high in blood, but too often like so many rolling 

 tallow-tubs, fit more for the chandler's than the butcher's 

 ^hop, and partly covered with two-thirds of its present 

 weight. There was now a better iutermixture of muscle or 

 lean meat with fat, by which the quality of the mutton was 

 much improved, and the fleece was a third heavier, without 

 having suffered any deterioration in quality. The Cots- 

 wolds, in former days, were of a large, yet rather coarse- 

 grained carcass, with a heavy fleece of wool, possessing a 

 good proportion of lean, more hardy than the Leicester, by 

 judicious crossing with which they have been much im- 

 proved, arriving much earlier at maturity, yielding a fleece 

 of finer quality, scarcely diminished in weight, and adapted 

 to the same purposes to which the Leicesters alone had 

 hitherto been devoted, with the additional advantage of re- 

 taining with the cross their original hardier nature. The 

 produce of the cross is styled the " improved Cotswold," 

 bred chietly in the counties of Oxford and Gloucester, from 

 the hills ot which latter county they derive their name. 

 Acclimated on this elevated part of the kingdom, and feed- 

 ing on pasture far inferior to the rich herbage on which the 

 Leicesters are in the habit of grazing, it is to be expected 

 that they would be characterized by a disposition to im- 

 prove when removed into former soils and fuller keep. I 

 have known them wintered on the arable soils of Ilanip- 

 ahire in the open air, with hay and turnips, only become 

 superfluously fat ; while other breeds, fed on the same food, 

 side by side, have barely sustained themselves in store con- 

 dition. In describing the character of the Hampshire 

 Down, which also prevails over a great part of Wiltshire, we 

 must bear this point continually in mind. These counties, 

 from their open fields and system of farming, are peculiarly 

 adapted for store or breeding of ewes, and a rearing of such 

 a description of lamb as will suit the feeders who come to 

 their great fairs in the summer lor the purpose of purchasing, 

 with the view of bringing them out the following spring as 

 well-fattened mutton for the London market. The aim, 

 therefore, of the Hampshire and Wiltshire breeds is to 

 combine size, quality, aptitude to arrive at early ma- 

 turity, and a heavy fleece of good quality, with a con- 

 stitution sufficiently hardy to undergo the process of 

 consuming the green crops and folding on the ground 

 where they go, thereby leaving a full dressing for the 

 crop of corn which is to follow. Now, it will be at once 

 apparent that the task of forming, as it were, an animal in 

 which shall be combined the necessary qualities for these 



several purposes, requires the soundest judgment and con- 

 stant care, and is attended with many difiiculties. The 

 better points of diff'erent breeds require to be fused into one 

 mould; and this daring exploit— for daring it was declared 

 to be by a public bigoted to old customs, and prejudiced 

 against the smallest deviation from the beaten track of their 

 ancestors— has been made with signal success by many of 

 the more enlightened flockmasters of these counties. Thej' 

 saw population had so gained on the heels of production, 

 that a greater weight of meat was annually required to be 

 grown; that, simultaneously with increase of number ol 

 sheep, they bethought themselves that to improve the 

 symmetry, increase the aptitude to fatten, and arrive at 

 heavier weights, with the same food, might be quite as 

 economical a mode of supplying the increased demand, as to 

 eifect it solely by the increase of numbers. They had be- 

 fore their eyes the parent-breeds of the matchless South- 

 downs, Leicesters, and improved Cotswolds. These, in 

 their separate state, were unfitted for the system of arable- 

 land farming, as well as for the description of carcase which 

 has the " call" in the market at the present day. To meet 

 the requirements of both, an amalgamation was decided 

 on ; and the result was a carcase of mutton exhibiting the 

 early maturity of the Leicester, the muscle of rich lean of 

 the Cotswoh), and the superior grain of the Down— a car- 

 case " ripe" at fourteen months old, instead of at three or 

 four years, as formerly. From this admixture, assisted by 

 the original Hampshire breed, which was founded about 

 the beginning of the present century, on (the then prevail- 

 ing breed of the country) the old horn-ewe and Sussex 

 ram, the present new Hampshire breed was formed. No 

 long pedigree of what is called "purity of blood" can be 

 claimed by any Hampshire flockmaster: but he has the 

 satisfaction of knowing that it is the admixture he has 

 made which constitutes the value of his stock ; for neither 

 of the parent-breeds from which he derived it can claim 

 comparison with his own for the union of qualities neces- 

 sary to form the most useful and best-adapted sheep for 

 the profitable consumption of his green, crops, or so satis- 

 factorily to meet the demand of the consumers of mutton 

 or of wool (Hear, hear). 



Mr. Blundeli. had noticed, in going through the Royal 

 Agricultural Society's show, that a class of sheep increas- 

 ing in favour very much indeed was the Oxfordshire Down, 

 which were something like what bad been recommended 

 by the lecturer to-day ; and they had assumed such a de- 

 cided character, that they might be styled a distinct class 

 of sheep ; and they had received the cognomen of the 

 " Oxfordshire Downs." This was important for all of 

 them to know, so that they might be induced to purchase 

 them. 



Mr. Sfooner remarked that the shorthorned breed of 

 cattle, and new Oxfordshire and improved breed of sheep, 

 were familiar examples of the benefits of judicious crossing. 



Mr. .Tames Warner bore bis testimony to the advan- 

 tage of a cross in sheep. He had had crosses from sheep of 

 all sorts ; but he thought that the lecture of Mr. Twynam 

 would elucidate some improvements. Those sheep which 

 he bought crossed with the Cotswold thrived better, and 

 paid him more, than any other. 



Mr. TwvNAM, in reply, said that the Hampshire and 

 the Cotswold would be far better than the Shropshire. 

 With regard to the Oxfordshire cross, the greatest breeders 

 of them were the Messrs. Druce, Mr. Hitchman, and an- 

 other gentleman, whose name he did not recollect, who 

 came to his house in 1836, took home some of his Hamp- 



