358 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 



437. Organizations and records. The National Lin- 

 coln Sheep Breeders' Association of America, organized 

 in 1891, looks after the interests of the breed in this 

 country. It has published two flock-books. In England 

 there is the Lincoln Long- Wool Sheep Breeders' Associa- 

 tion, organized in 1892. It issues a volume of its flock- 

 book each year. 



COTSWOLD SHEEP. Plate XIII. 

 By David McCrae 



438. The Cotswold is a breed of sheep raised both for 

 wool and for mutton. It is of large size, capable of 

 enduring much hardship and exposure, and well adapted 

 to many soils. The name is derived from a range of 

 bleak uplands in Gloucestershire, England, known as 

 Cotswold hills. 



439. History in England. The Cotswold is an old 

 English breed, whose antiquity is undoubted. It is one 

 of the earliest sheep mentioned by name in Anglo-Saxon 

 records. In the time of the Roman conquests, the region 

 from which these sheep came is said to have been famous 

 for the production of wool. Low suggests that the Cots- 

 wold was developed from the sheep found in the counties 

 of Warwick and Oxford at an early period. The modern 

 Cotswold is not so large nor so high-standing as was the 

 older breed, but has more style, being remarkable for 

 symmetry, early maturity and weight, with a lofty car- 

 riage, a fine, well-covered head, and an abundant fleece of 

 white, wavy wool. Much of this improvement is ascribed 

 to the use of Leicester rams on Cotswold ewes, a practice 

 very common about the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. 



