DORSET HORNED SHEEP. 405 



Dorcliester district may send pens of ewes, but as a ram breeder 

 he is, as a rule, allowed to carry all before him. It appears that 

 Mr. Farthing commenced exhibiting at the shows of this society 

 at the SaKsbury Meeting in 1867, and at the Smithfield Club 

 Show in the same year, and has not missed putting in an 

 appearance there ever since. On those few occasions when the 

 Eoyal Agricultural Society offered special prizes for the breed, 

 they were usually carried off by him, and what with his winnings 

 at the Devon and Somerset County Shows, and at the Sherborne, 

 Taunton, and other local exhibitions, he has received over two 

 hundred premiums for Somerset and Dorset horn sheep. 

 According to general testimony, both in Somerset and Dorset, 

 the ewes are accustomed to clip from 51b. to 61b., rams clip from 

 101b. to 121b., and the lambs, which are usually shorn, yield 

 about half as much as the ewes. As it appears the wool of lambs 

 of this breed is in great demand, it would be folly not to clip 

 them. According to Mr. T. Ensor, there is also a great demand 

 from butchers for the carcases of Dorset lambs, his language 

 being : "There is as keen competition amongst butchers for horn 

 lambs, as for Down lambs, and perhaps even more demand for 

 the former than for the latter. When the old draft ewes are 

 intended to fatten lambs for the London market, Mr. Ensor says 

 they are made to yean in October and November. Both ewes 

 and lambs have good feeding, so that the latter are generally fit 

 for the butcher from ten to twelve weeks old, when they average 

 from 101b. to 141b. per quarter, and go to the London market 

 realising from 40s. to 50s. each. The ewes are then finished off 

 for slaughter, which does not take long, they being usually 

 nearly fat when the lambs go. Some of the lambs from the 

 flock ewes are also fattened when there are good watered 

 meadows for the ewes and lambs to be turned into in March or 

 the beginning of April. The lambs fatten readily, especially 

 when they receive as much cake or corn as they will eat, which 

 is generally the ease, the object being to get them fit for slaughter 

 as early in April as possible. 



At Mr. Ensor's annual auctions in May, held in his Dorchester 

 Kepository, a considerable number of shearling rams and lamb 

 rams are not only sold, but compete for prizes. They are from 

 the flocks of Mr. Henry Mayo, Mr. W. Hull, Mr. C. Harding, 



