568 SHEEP MOUNTAIN AND MOORLAND 



to 12 Ibs. per quarter; from an improved flock, they may 

 reach 16 to 18 Ibs. a quarter." Another writer speaks of 

 them as " a breed of sheep with [black muzzles], white faces, 

 and legs, taper horns curving downward and outward, close- 

 set, long-stapled fleeces, with wool up to the cheeks, peculiarly 

 rounded instead of square-formed carcase, broad loins, 

 though with slack girth behind the shoulders, and high 

 necks. The original Exmoors milk better than the improved, 

 and old ewes especially, and young ones, if they are well kept 

 at tupping-time, are very prolific. There are instances of 

 ewes rearing three lambs well after the first fortnight." The 

 ewes are always brought down to the lower ground to lamb, 

 and get a few turnips and oats, and they come in again from 

 the hills in November to the poorest enclosed lands. They 

 lamb at two years old, and have the reputation of being good 

 mothers. They are generally drafted after three crops of 

 lambs. A good useful ram can be bought for from 5 to 

 10, and choice blood relatively more. Exmoor sheep have 

 been exhibited for many years at the Royal Agricultural 

 Show, the Bath and West of England, and the Somerset 

 and Devon county shows. The Bath and West Journal, 

 1860, states that the Exmoors exhibited at the show "were 

 greatly admired, not only for their symmetrical proportions 

 and the quality of their flesh, but also for their wool, and an 

 adaptation of form to mountain districts." The farmers 

 who occupy farms lying between 900 and 1300 feet above 

 the sea, are careful to breed from ewes of good constitution, 

 rain-resisting wool ; and that will produce lambs that can be 

 fattened as hoggs. The Exmoor Horn Sheep Breeders' 

 Society, founded in 1906, has for its object the encourage- 

 ment of breeding and the maintenance of the purity and the 

 characteristics of the breed at home and abroad. 



The entire flock of a noted local breeder was sold by 

 auction, at a farm on the borders of Exmoor, in September 

 1906, when a pen of two-teeth ewes fetched 62s. a head. 

 The ewes averaged 453. ; ewe lambs, 345. ; and fat wether 

 hoggs, 503. each. 



Youatt says that " both the Dartmoor and the Exmoor 

 sheep owe much to the cross with the New Leicester, with 

 respect to early maturity, increased size so far as it is 

 desirable and a far more valuable fleece." 



