SHEEP. • 231 



number of ttcm and of tlieir congeners, the Hampshire Downs, shown in the 

 London markets in 1858, was 10 per cent, of the whole number of sheep 

 shown ; in 1862 they had risen to 15 per cent, of the whole number. In prime 

 American flocks, wethers twenty or twenty-one months old at Christmas, dress 

 from 75 to 100 pounds weight. At two years old they weigh from 100 to 120 

 pounds each. Their fleeces average from 4 to 6 pounds, according to the keep- 

 ing and breeding of the flock. They are not as hardy as the unimproved 

 South Downs, or as the cross between the South Downs and some other short- 

 woolled varieties, but they still rank among hardy sheep ; and they are good 

 workers, being capable of travelling much further for their feed than any of 

 the long wools. Their mutton sells in England for 3i cents more per pound 

 than Cotswold and Leicester, and half a cent more than the other improved 

 short-woolled families and their varieties. They are prolific and are excellent 

 nurses. 



THE HAMPSHIRE DOWNS. 



This family is the result of a cross between the South Downs and a short- 

 woolled English variety of greater size and better constitution. Some writers 

 conjecture that they have also a slight infusion of Cotswold blood. They are 

 coarser in appearance than the South Downs, and their mutton sells half a cent 

 less per pound in the market ; but they possess nearly all the good qualities 

 of the former and are hardier. They are favorites in many parts of England, 

 but have not been introduced extensively into the United States. 



THE SHROPSHIRE DOWNS, OR SHROPSHIRES. 



Tliese, like the preceding, have been produced by a South Down cross in a 

 very hardy short-woolled stock ; and most of the flocks have also a dip of the 

 Leic -ter and Cotswold blood. They are nearly as large as the last-named 

 famii.es; and they promise to unite to an uncommon degree the good quali- 

 ties of the short and long wools, being larger than the former and hardier and 

 more easily kept than the latter ; while their mutton is of good quality, and 

 the ewes are highly prolific and are excellent mothers. Superior specimens of 

 them are to be found in the United States and Canada. 



THE OXFORDSHIRE DOWNS. 



Tliis comparatively modern family is of a cross between the Hampshire 

 Downs or the South Downs and the Cotswolds, and the statements above 

 made in respect to the Shropshires will apply equally well to them, though 

 the two families vary in appearance and in several of their minor qualities. 

 The Oxfordshire Downs have been tested on rough, rocky, briery pastures in 

 Massachusetts, and have given great satisfaction, as hai'dy, easily kept mutton 

 sheep. 



MERINO SHEEP. 



The original importation of Merino sheep into the United States from Spain 

 included all the most prominent cabanas of that country. But, as a general 

 thing, the different families, even when preserved pure from foreign admix- 

 tures, were crossed promiscuously with each other. The Saxon, French, and 

 Silesian Merinos were of later importation. 



Of the original Spanish stock, but two are now represented by distuact fami- 

 lies — namely, the Infantado and the Paular. 



THE IMPROVED INFANTADOS. 



These sheep, originally imported by Colonel David Humphreys, of Connec- 

 ticut, have been preserved pure to the present day. They are a fourth, if not 

 a third, heavier than their Spanish ancestors, and are the largest family of 



