The Breediiu/ and Manrnjement of Sheep. 407 



60 in uumber, were pui'chased of Mr. Golding, of Beddingtou, the 

 rams, 4 yearlings, from Sir C. Knightley. The wool of these sheep 

 was enormously heavy, the ewes cut 1( ) lbs. each, the rams, 14 lb. each. 

 These sheep being managed after the fashion of the Normans, the 

 wool grew less every year, that of their progeny still lighter. In six 

 years they clipped only 3 lbs. of very bad wool ; the foiirth generation 

 became long-legged, their bodies differing from the original stock, but 

 resembling the native-bred Norman sheep, with which they had had no 

 relationship. After this failure a Southdown ram was used, and the 

 stock improved. Yet they soon mingled with the common flocks of 

 the country, it being found impossible to maintain these Leicester 

 sheep upon poor soils with bad management. 



Let me further quote a remark of a London sheep salesman, who 

 looked over the pens of fat sheep with me at the Smithfield Club 

 meeting in 1858. The trimming and jockeying was so cleverly done 

 that we could not but admire the skill displayed ; the fatness and 

 weight of each sheep was marvellous, considering that they were 

 called Downs ; but what most astonished the salesman was that they 

 possessed no more quality as mutton than the Leicesters which were 

 by their side; nay, that they were equally unfit for food. 



A statement made to me by Mr. Thomas, the eminent butcher of 

 Charing Cross, will further illustrate these remarks, who, contrasting 

 a sheej) of mine with a fat Leicester, observed that when he had sold 

 the Leicester haunches, which themselves were not of the best quality, 

 the other three-fourths of the carcase were put into the tallow tub, 

 whilst of my sheep every inch was sold as the best quality. 



And here let me quote, as a witness to the importance of keeping 

 Southdowns pure, the high authority of Mr. Anderson, late manager 

 for the Duke of Bedford, at Oakley. This gentleman was so successfid 

 in infusing Cotswold blood into his Leicesters, that he won the prize 

 of a gold medal at Smithfield Show with some animals which I was dis- 

 posed to regard as the best Leicesters I ever saw. He considered that 

 this cross improved the constitution of his flock ; but on the other hand, 

 when speaking of Southdowns, for which he had a great partiality, 

 he said I cannot touch them with any cross without rendering them 

 unfit for their purpose, and one important pm*pose of the breed is 

 to secure a hardy sheep, capable of eating up parings, sheep which, if 

 put for a while upon short commons, will not give way in flesh. 



For the butcher, no doubt a cross between the Southdown and 

 Leicester will always be serviceable, and will pay the farmer well 

 when wool is making a long price ; indeed, the whole question often 

 turns upon the price of wool. The improved Lincoln affords, on the 

 whole, the most valuable cross with the Southdown. 



Apart from the Southdo^vn, where can we look for jiiu-ity of breed ? 

 where shall we find a so-called established breed that has not an ad- 

 mixture of Southdown blood ? With respect to the Cotswolds, we 

 have it it on the authority of Mr. Jones, the agent of the late Duke 

 of Norfolk, that they were originally crossed with the Downs : 

 the Oxford Down is a usefid, but confessedly cross-bred sheep. 

 What again shall we say of the Shropshires? At the Canterbury 



