THE HAMPSHIRE OR WEST COUNTRY DOWN SHEEP. 337 



result is realised in the present almost perfect animal known as 

 the Improved Hampshire Down. 



Since 1863 Mr. Eawlence, of Bulbridge, near Wilton, has 

 maintained and increased the reputation of this breed of sheep, 

 having obtained a large number of prizes at the Royal 

 •Agricultural Society, the Smithfield Club, the Bath and West of 

 England, and local shows. To Mr. Morrison, of Fonthill, whose 

 sheep are almost entirely descended from the Bulbridge fldck, 

 has been accorded the unique honour, as a breeder of West 

 Country Downs, of receiving the silver cup at the Smithfield 

 Show of 1872 for his shearling wethers, estimated to weigh 

 2801b. each, as the best pen of short-wooUed sheep in the yard.* 

 The other breeders of very excellent animals in Wiltshire are 

 Messrs. Waters, Dibben, Bennett, Moore, Coles, and Read. 

 Whilst in Dorset, Messrs. Saunders, of Watercombe ; Fookes, 

 of Cerne and Homer, have obtained celebrity with animals more 

 closely allied with the Southdown. The old Hampshire flocks 

 are admirably represented by Messrs. F. Budd, Parker, Arnold, 

 Barton, Lewis, Fitt, and others. 



It may be of some interest now to inquire into the circum- 

 stances under which the Southdown flocks in Wilts and Dorset 

 have gradually merged into the improved Hampshire Downs. 



Almost concurrent with the inclosure of the common lands, 

 about seventy years since, large areas of the Down pasture 

 lands, which had served as admirable feeding grounds for the 

 Southdowns, were broken up. A little later artificial manures 

 were introduced. These conditions induced the farmers to 

 largely increase the growth of artificial crops for sheep feed, 

 such as turnips, rape, vetches, trifolium, rye, and Italian rye- 

 grass. The consumption of these artificial crops by sheep led 

 the breeders generally to turn their attention to the system 

 adopted by the Hampshire men, of selling their wether lambs in 

 the late summer or early autumn, instead of keeping them, as 

 was then the custom, until they became two-teeth or four-teeth 

 sheep, when they were sold at a smaller price than the lambs 

 now realise. Under these conditions it was important to secure 

 early maturity and greater size, and the flockmasters, with very 



* A still higher honour was reached in 1886, when Mr. Chapman's 

 Bhearlinga took the Champion Cup of 501. as best sheep in the Hall. 



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