436 Breeds of Sheep best adapted to different Localities. 



beneficial or injurious effects that may arise therefrom; under 

 such circumstances the cross should only be proceeded in with 

 great care, and as it were experimentally, until the benefit was 

 clearly seen and established by indubitable proof. 



I now proceed to the consideration of the Cotswold, or, 

 as they are more generally and emphatically known in places 

 distant from the Cotswold Hills, the long-woolled sheep. The 

 name of the hills has undoubtedly been derived from the practice 

 pursued there centuries ago of cotting the flocks on the Glouces- 

 ter Wolds known by that designation, and at one period was very 

 generally practised in the counties of Hereford, Worcester, and 

 Gloucester. Camden states that these cots were long ranges of 

 buildings, three or four stories high, with low ceilings, and with 

 a slope at one end of each floor, reaching to the next, by which 

 the sheep were enabled to reach the topmost one ; from this and 

 other circumstances, there are good grounds for believing that 

 the original breed of the Cotswold Hills were similar to the 

 Ryeland and Morfe Common sheep of Shropshire. The fineness 

 of the Ryeland fleece and freedom from kemps is probably 

 attributable to the shelter and warmth they thus received during 

 the inclemency of winter nights : whether this opinion is correct 

 or not, there cannot be a doubt that the system of cotting has the 

 effect of causing the staple of the wool to be much finer than it 

 otherwise would have been. 



The Cotswold is a large breed of sheep, and is the stock 

 from which the class called new Oxford is sprung: they are 

 superior to the new Leicester in hardiness of constitution, are 

 more prolific, will sustain themselves " hy holding their own,"" or 

 improving on pastures and in severity of weather where the new 

 Leicester would decidedly deteriorate. In suckling their lambs 

 the Cotswold ewes are decidedly superior to those of the new 

 Leicester; in this quality and in being more prolific the Cots- 

 wold agrees with those breeds which have been least indebted to 

 the care of man. Although 1 have previously said that the 

 Cotswold Hills were formerly occupied by a short- wooUed 

 breed of sheep, I by no means infer that the race known as 

 Cotswold is descended from the diminutive Ryeland ; 1 believe 

 the Cotswold to be the original and finest type of all our long- 

 woolled breeds ; the old Leicester was a much coarser animal 

 than the Cotswold, which I attribute in a great measure to the 

 richness of pasture in that celebrated pastoral county. The fine 

 upstanding sheep found in the wide-spreading and fertile vale of 

 York, and known as Yorkshire sheep ; the celebrated sheep on 

 the Currah of Kildare, and the rich dry loamy soils of Kilkenny, 

 approximate closely in character to the Cotswold sheep, the 

 principal difference being that the former are not quite so large 



