Live Stock* Sheep South-Down Breed Def crip t Ion of. 677 



cd, both the wool and carcafe being increafed in weight, but much injured in re- 

 fpect to finenefs. 



The South-Down breed is diflinguifhed by having no horns ; gray faces and 

 legs ; fine bones ; long fmall necks ; and by being rather low before, high on the 

 moulder, and light in the fore-quarter; fides good ; loin tolerably broad ; back 

 bone rather high; thigh full ; twift good ; mutton fine in grain and well flavoured. 

 Wool fhort, very clofe and fine ; in length of ftaple from two to three inches. 

 Weight per quarter in wethers at two years old iSlbs.* This breed is predomi 

 nant on the dry chalky downs in SufTex. 



It has been lately much improved both in carcafe and wool ; and for the fliort 

 lefs fertile paftures is an excellent fort. The (heep are hardy, and difpofed to fat 

 ten quickly. Mr. Ellman of Glynd, is in poflefTion of a very fuperior flock of 

 this valuable breed. Where the ewes are full kept, they frequently produce twin 

 lambs, nearly in the proportion of one-third of the whole, which are, when drop 

 ped, well woolled. The wethers are capable of being difpofed of at an early age, 

 being feldom kept longer than two years old, and often fed at eighteen months. 



The ewes areufually kept till between four and five, and found to anfvvcr well 

 to the graziers in the neighbourhood, as well as the farmers in Norfolk and the 

 adjoining counties, in the place of home-bred fheep, as being more expeditious 

 feeders, and equally adapted for the purpofeof the fold.f 



It is a breed of fheep, which from the compactnefs of their form, and their legs 

 being fhorter, confiderably outweigh both the Dorfet and Norfolk breeds in pro 

 portion to the fize of the carcafe, being heavy in a fmali compafs. Their hardinefs 

 is eftimated according to the darknefs of the colour in the face and legs ; but as 

 there is inconvenience in the produce on this account, from the wool, efpecially 

 about the head and neck, becoming fpotted with black, and thereby thrown afide 

 by the ftapler, as only of half the full value, a middle degree of colour may be the 

 bed. As an open country breed, they are fufficiently gentle and tractable. They 

 are capable of travelling well, and of refilling the effects of expofure to cold. The 

 wool is fcarcely, if at all, inferior in finenefs to that of the Hereford (hire kind ; as 

 the practice of forting,which is common in that diftrict,is not in ufe on the Downs. 

 The merit of this breed is fuch as to have induced the meep-farmers in variou* 

 diftricts to introduce them in preference to the above breeds, and on comparative 

 trials, they have been found to pofTefs a fuperiority.J 



* Culley on Live Stock. t Agricultural Survey of Suffex, 4to edition. % Culky on Live Stock. 



