334 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 



volumes of its flock-book registering over 32,000. The 

 latter has registered sheep from nearly every state in 

 the Union. 



SHROPSHIRE DOWN SHEEP. Plate XII. 

 By H. P. Miller 



382. The name Shropshire, as applied to sheep, was 

 derived from the county of that name in England where 

 the breed was developed. The breed is officially known 

 as Shropshire Down, but the name is oftert abbrevi- 

 ated to Shrop. It is a mutton breed, or perhaps we may 

 properly consider it a general-purpose breed. 



383. History in England. Its friends claim for the 

 Shropshire an equally remote origin with the Southdown. 

 The name, as applied to sheep, is mentioned in English 

 literature as far back as 1341, there being at that time a 

 grade of wool designated as Shropshire. The breed had 

 not taken on many of its present characteristics, however, 

 a century ago, as Plymley, in his " Agriculture of Shrop- 

 shire," published in 1803, described the sheep of that 

 country thus : " There is a breed of sheep in Longmynd, 

 with horns and black faces, that seem an indigenous 

 sort. They are nimble, hardy and weigh about ten 

 pounds to the quarter when fatted. Their fleeces weigh 

 about two and one-half pounds." Wilson, in his Journal 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society, Vol. XVI, states that 

 when the Bristol wool society, in 1792, procured all the 

 information available regarding sheep in England, it 

 reported that on Morfe Common there were about 10,000 

 sheep kept during the summer that had black, brown or 

 spotted faces, a superior quality of wool, and were con- 



