BREEDS OF SHEEP AND GOATS 341 



numbers, and since then, more especially in recent years, 

 thousands have been brought to the United States, where 

 this is the most popular of all the mutton breeds. 



In size the Shropshire sheep is medium, the mature 

 rams weighing about 225 pounds and the ewes about 

 160 pounds. The head often has a covering of wool, or 

 "cap," down to the nose, which is covered with dark brown 

 or nearly black hair. The back is broad, the leg of mutton 

 very good, and the body is usually deep, showing good feed- 

 ing capacity. The legs are dark brown in color like the face, 

 and are covered with wool to the knees in front and to the 

 ankles behind. The quality of mutton is most excellent, 

 being second to the Southdown only. The fleece is usually 

 about 3J/2 inches long, in typical specimens grading as three- 

 eighths, and is of very good quality. A twelve months' 

 growth from fair specimens of the breed weighs about 9 or 

 10 pounds, and entire flocks have averaged even more. 



The good combination of size of body and weight of 

 fleece has done much to make this breed popular with Amer- 

 ican farmers, as a great general-purpose sheep. Further- 

 more, the Shropshire is our most prolific breed, many ewes 

 having twin lambs. Flocks are very common all over the 

 so-called corn belt of the United States, especially east of 

 the Mississippi and in Canada. The American Shropshire 

 Sheep Association is the largest organization of its kind in 

 the world, and has done much to promote the breed. 



The Oxford Down sheep comes from the county of Oxford, 

 in south-central England. It is a beautiful rolling country, 

 with good pastures, and where wheat and small grains thrive. 

 This is one of our youngest breeds of sheep, and comes from 

 a combination of Cotswold and Hampshire blood. About 

 1833 Samuel Druce began to breed these sheep, and finally 

 produced one of the largest English mutton breeds. For a 

 long time the wool, though abundant, was rather inferior, 

 but the size and the mutton quality of the sheep made it 



