JUDGING LIVE STOCK. 215 



noted improvers of the breed. Among other breeders of 

 Cotswold sheep Mr. M. Lane of Broatifield was usually suc- 

 cessful in winning prizes on his ewes. The Messrs. Games 

 were also producers of good show sheep. Another prize win- 

 ner was a Mr. J. King Tombs, who bred largely from the 

 Games and Lane blood. Good sheep have also been shown 

 from Oxfordshire and prizes have gone to Mr. Brown in Nor- 

 folk County. 



The thin soil on the limestone hills of Gloucestershire is, 

 as we have said, especially adapted to the rearing of large, 

 strong, healthy sheep, and it is to these hills that the low- 

 land breeders resort for improvement of blood. The Cots- 

 wold is the largest of the known breeds of sheep with long, 

 rather coarse wool and flesh of coarse grain. The average 

 fleece weighs about 9 1-3 pounds, though some have gone as 

 high as 14 pounds. 



The Cotswolds are good not only as a breed in themselves; 

 they have been instrumental in affecting improvement in 

 other breeds, as in Wales, Hereford, and Monmouth. At 

 stated periods a sale of rams takes place at Cirencester, 

 where the rams are auctioned off to the highest bidder. Some 

 breeders still hold sales at their own farms. The practice 

 of ram letting, as was followed by Bakewell and other Lei- 

 cester breeders, has not been practiced to any extent by the 

 breeders of Cotswolds. It may be said in conclusion that, 

 although there appears to have been an introduction of Lei- 

 cester blood into the Cotswold, at one time, for upwards of 

 three-quarters of a century the Cotswolds have been bred 

 pure and are a distinct breed of sheep, as are the Oxfords, 

 Shropshires, or Leicesters themselves. 



