DORSET HORNED SHEEP. 399 



a few leading breeders, and subsequently by the distribution of 

 their rams and the infusion of their better blood into flocks 

 generally. But working on the in-and-in principle is well 

 known to require a lengthy period for the accomplishment of 

 grand results, and it has been alleged on pretty good authority 

 that the shorter method of infusing the blood of other breeds 

 has been resorted to. 



One of the most respectable farmers in Western Dorset wrote 

 as follows, about ten years since : " I have known many of the 

 best horn flocks for more than forty years, and I am not at all 

 prepared to say they are better now, if indeed so good as they 

 were then. I admit they are more uniform in size, shape of 

 horn, and general character, but certainly not so large or hardy 

 in constitution. During that time most of the flocks have been 

 crossed by the Somerset polled sheep (a breed now almost 

 extinct) or by Leicesters, and in some cases by Devons, which 

 has made them more round and perfect in symmetry. I have 

 myself seen within the last seven years Leicester rams with some 

 of the best horn flocks in the West of England, though I hardly 

 think the owners would like to admit the fact." 



Whatever agencies the breeders have adopted, they appear to 

 have made the breed vastly better for grazing, without depriving 

 it in any material degree of the inherent native good qualities 

 for which it has been so long and happily distinguished. 

 Their fecundity has not been detracted from, and they still yean 

 more twins, and give less trouble in lambing than other kinds. 

 The ewes are reported to take the ram as early as ever they did, 

 when permitted to do so. At the time Claridge wrote, the 

 season for putting the most forward ewes to the ram was the last 

 week in April for such as were intended to be sold the following 

 autumn, and for the stock ewes about midsummer; and the 

 lambing period he describes as the middle of September for the 

 sale ewes, and the beginning of December for the bulk of the 

 flock. But neither for stock nor sale purposes is the lambing 

 required to take place so early now, nor has it been for many 

 jears. Spooner in his book on sheep observes : " They take the 

 ram as early as May and June, and their lambs are usually 

 dropped in October and November, so that they are the principal 

 sources of the supply of house and early lamb, which about 



