604 SHEEP HORNLESS DARK-FACED SHORT-WOOLS 



Zealand, Tasmania, Japan, Canada, United States of America, 

 Argentine, Uruguay, Chili, Brazil, Jamaica, Demerara, Natal, 

 South Africa, Algiers, Germany, France, Russia, Spain, 

 Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. 



The Foundation Stock from which the modern Shropshire 

 breed has been developed since the beginning of last century 

 was the original breed of Shropshire and Staffordshire. It 

 was described in 1792 by the Bristol Wool Society, quoted 

 by Professor John Wilson, of the Chair of Agriculture in 

 Edinburgh University, in vol. xvi. of the Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, as follows : " On Morfe common, near 

 Bridgnorth, there are about 10,000, sheep kept during the 

 summer months, which produce wool of a superior quality. 

 They are considered a native breed, are black-faced, or brown 

 or spotted-faced, horned sheep, little subject to either rot or 

 scab, weighing the wethers from 1 1 to 14 Ibs., and the 

 ewes from 9 to 1 1 Ibs. per quarter, after being fed with clover 

 and turnips, and clipping near 2 Ibs. per fleece ; this appears 

 to be the original stock from which the present breed of 

 Shropshires has sprung." The Morfe common sheep was 

 said by Youatt to " resemble the Ryeland in many points," or 

 to be a variety of that breed. Cannock Chase, in Staffordshire, 

 also contributed a similar but heavier type of sheep, from 

 which many of the Staffordshire flocks are descended. There 

 can be little doubt but crossing with the improved Southdown 

 was the means by which the early slow-maturity breed was 

 developed into the modern hornless form. 1 The two pioneer 

 breeders were Samuel Meire, of Berrington, and afterwards 

 of Harley ; and George Adney, of Harley, the blood of whose 

 flocks is to be found in " nearly every flock of repute at 

 the present day." The improved Shropshire got a strong 

 impetus to its further development by the recognition of 

 the breed at the Royal Show at Gloucester in 1853, "but it 

 was not till 1859 that it was admitted into the Royal Society's 

 prize sheet and recognised as a distinct breed." At the 

 Royal Show in 1862 there were 133 Shropshires of all 

 classes present, in 1874 there were 186; but in 1876 the 

 numbers rose to 509, and in 1884 to 876. At the 1884 

 show, held at Shrewsbury, sixty exhibitors hailed from 



1 Prof. D. D. Williams, in the Farmer and Stock Breeder? Year Book, 

 1907, associates the Long Mynd breed with the ancestry of the Shropshire. 



