OHAPTEE XXII. 



DORSET HORNED SHEEP. 



By JOSEPH DAEBY. 



HIS celebrated breed is, by common confession, one of 

 the oldest and best of the upland horned races. 

 Dorset horned ewes stand unrivalled for fecundity^ 

 for excellence as nurses, and still more for taking 

 the ram at almost any desired period, and being pre-eminently 

 adapted for the production of our earliest crops of lambs. Few 

 other sheep were formerly to be met with in their native county 

 until Southdowns expelled them from the chalk hills; but they 

 were improved by crossing at a very early period, and tho 

 original breed had become rare well nigh a century ago. Mr. 

 Claridge, in furnishing his report on Dorset to the Board of 

 Agriculture in 1793, said " The original breed of Dorset sheep 

 is very scarce to be met with, as most of the farmers have crossed 

 their flocks with either Hants, Wilts, or Somerset sheep, which 

 certainly improved them in size." This crossing must have been 

 conducted with great care and judgment even at that period. 

 Mr. Parkinson, who wrote very early in the present century, 

 affords the following information respecting Dorset sheep : " I 

 look upon the Dorset ewe," says he, '* as the best horned ewe in 

 the kingdom, those of Somerset excepted, and they are so near 

 alike that few people, unless the natives of the two counties, 

 know the difference. The best of the Dorset ewes are more 

 correct in their shape than many of the improved breeds of sheep. 

 Mr. Bridge says they have been much improved of late years ; 

 they used to be long-legged, which is by no means the case at 

 present." He then describes them as straight in carcass, deep 



