610 SHEEP HORNLESS DARK-FACED SHORT-WOOLS 



hocks and knees, round the cheeks, between the ears and 

 on the forehead ; but wool under the eyes, or across the 

 bridge of the nose, on the ears, or below the hocks and 

 knees is to be avoided. It is desirable that the face, ears, 

 and legs should be of a greyish-brown colour. The Dorset 

 Down should embody the good points common to all breeds 

 of sheep, but should be especially good through the heart 

 and behind the shoulder ; it should also have a well let-down 

 and rounded leg, and, whilst not standing too short, there 

 should be no tendency to legginess." 



It is claimed that the Dorset Down is a rent-paying 

 type, which, stocked thick on the ground, produces the small 

 mutton of the finest quality sought for in the best markets, 

 viz., from 66 to 72 Ibs. at eight to nine months old, or 

 from 40 to 48 Ibs. as sucking lamb at ten to twelve weeks 

 old : and that they are equally at home between hurdles, and 

 spread over the ewe-leases upon which the Dorset flocks 

 are kept six or eight months of the year. In comparing 

 Hampshires and Dorset Downs, it has been stated that 120 

 Dorsets could be bred and kept in place of 100 Hampshires ; 

 that the Hampshire butchers' teg would weigh g\ stones 

 (of 8 Ibs.), or 19 Ibs. a quarter, worth 8d. per lb., against the 

 Dorset 8 stones, or 17 Ibs. a quarter, at 8Jd. a lb. ; and that 

 the Dorset Down fleece often averages 5 to 5j Ibs., or rather 

 more than the average Hampshire flock, and fetches id. a lb. 

 more at sale. The breed reaps all the marketing advantages 

 which quality confers on a prime as against a rough or 

 coarse-feeding sheep or its product. It is estimated that 

 there are about 100,000 Dorset Down breeding ewes in the 

 country, and about 40,000 of these were entered in the first 

 volume of the Flock Book a fact which demonstrates how 

 quickly and widely a knowledge of the value of registration 

 is spreading in this country. 



The Hampshire Down sheep, says the preface to the 

 first volume of the Flock Book published by the Hampshire 

 Down Sheep Breeders' Association in 1890, "undoubtedly 

 dates its origin from the crossing of the old Wiltshire horned 

 sheep and the old Berkshire knot with the Southdowns, 

 which were introduced into Wiltshire and Hampshire early 

 in the nineteenth century." The first results were different 



