CROSSING ENGLISH FAMILIES. 133 



a nostrum vender than a reputable breeder, he veiled all 

 his proceedings in the closest mystery, and even permitted 

 the knowledge of them to die with him. Some therefore have, 

 affected to believe that he resorted to different breeds, as he 

 is known to have done to different families, in selecting his 

 materials. But there are no proofs of the fact, and all the 

 probabilities favor the conclusion that he adhered strictly to 

 the long-wooled families.* Among the facts which would 

 seem, by analogy, to favor the latter conclusion, was his own 

 rigid in-and-in line of breeding, after his materials were 

 selected. If he deemed such quasi-identity both in blood and 

 structure necessary or favorable to the completion of his 

 object, it can scarcely be supposed that he would have volun- 

 tarily, and wholly unnecessarily, disregarded so great a 

 discrepancy as that of a total difference.in breed, in its outset ; 

 or, even that he would have spread his selection over any 

 unnecessary number of families within the same breed. 



Mr. Bakewell's improved Leicesters have, since his death, 

 again been improved by a dip of Cotswold blood. It is found 

 to invigorate their constitutions, and to render them better in 

 the hind quarters. The Cotswolds of the present day have 

 generally been rendered a little more disposed to take on fat 

 rapidly, and to mature earlier, by a Leicester cross. The New 

 Oxfordshire sheep, as has been seen, is but a Cotswold 

 improved by Leicester blood. 



The Hampshire and Shropshire Downs may be cited as 

 conspicuous examples of successful crossing between the 

 short-wooled families for it is, in my opinion, mainly to 

 these families they owe their peculiar excellence, and not to 

 any strain of long-wool blood, where it exists in them. 

 Various of the minor British short-wooled families have also 

 been improved by crosses with the Down, and with each other. 



For another and merely temporary purpose, viz., to obtain 

 larger and earlier lambs or sheep for the butcher, it is 

 legitimate to cross between different breeds or families indis- 

 criminately, where the object in view can be effected in the 

 first cross. The nature of the Soil, food or climate may be 

 unfavorable to the large, early-maturing mutton families, but 

 sufficiently favorable to some smaller and hardier sheep; 

 indeed, many such localities in all old countries have families, 

 grown on them for many generations, which have gradually 



* This is decidedly Mr. Youatt's opinion, though, like other British writers, he 

 uses the word breed to classify the different families (as they are termed in this 

 volume) of the loug-wooled breed. 



