338 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 



Oxfords. They were first exhibited at the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society Show in 1851, but a separate class was 

 not granted them until 1862. That may be taken as the 

 date when they became a recognized breed with a fixed 

 type. 



391. History in America. This breed had gained 

 enough recognition by 1846, so that it was in that year 

 imported to America by Clayton Reybold, of Delaware. 

 In 1853, small flocks were brought to Virginia and Massa- 

 chusetts. The following year, J. T. Andrew, of West 

 Cornwall, Connecticut, imported a flock that spread the 

 fame of the breed. In 1857, Andrew sold a small flock 

 to Messrs. Smith, of Middlefield, Massachusetts, and to 

 C. L. Whiting, of Granville, Ohio. In 1859, Andrew sold 

 a flock to C. G. Forshay, of Texas. Interest in the breed 

 then subsided, and did not revive until about 1880. 

 W. A. Shafer, of Ohio, R. J. Stone, of Illinois, Geo. Mc- 

 Kerrow, of Wisconsin, and Robert Miller, of Ontario, 

 in the next few years imported large numbers and dis- 

 seminated them widely through the United States and 

 Canada. 



392. Description. The Oxford is the largest of the 

 Down breeds. It stands very much higher than the 

 Shropshire, is more rangy, straighter on the under-line, 

 and has longer and coarser fleece than any other of the 

 group. Being a cross-bred sheep of rather recent origin, 

 the type is not so well established as with the other Down 

 breeds. Some specimens are coarse and rather open in 

 fleece, and others finer and more compact. From the 

 Hampshire line of ancestry, it inherits a tendency to dark 

 or bluish skin and black spots and hairs in the fleece, 

 which are very objectionable. However, it is being rapidly 

 improved in these particulars. The Oxford Down has a 



