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THE DEVON LONGWOOL. 



The Devon Longwool is a local breed kept in large numbers 

 in Devon and Somerset, and was first brought to general notice in 

 this country by the Bath and West of England Society offering 

 special prizes for it at the Taunton Show in 1870. The estabr 

 lishment of a Flock Booh, the first volume of which appeared in 

 1 900, has brought it to the notice of foreign buyers. 



Origin of the Breed. Low, in 1845, recorded that the breed was 

 produced by crossing with the improved Leicester two very distinct 

 breeds, of great size, but coarse inferior quality, viz., the "Southern 

 Notts," from westward of the Vale of Honiton, " with brown faces 

 and legs," carrying " a fleece of long wool, moderately soft, 

 weighing from 9 to 10 Ib." ; and the " Bampton Notts," on the 

 borders of Devon and Somerset, " with white faces, a very heavy 

 fleece of long wool, and carcases weighing 30 to 35 Ib. per quarter 

 at two years old." 



The breed claims to have produced in 1846 the heaviest recorded 

 carcase of a sheep fed in this country that of a wether weighing 

 78 Ib. per quarter. It also produces a heavy fleece of excellent 

 long wool. The ewes are good nurses and the lambs strong and 

 easily reared. 



Devon Longwool Sheep at the Smithfield Show, 1902-1911. 



THE ROSCOMMON. 



The Roscommon is the only remaining pure breed of Irish sheep, 

 and is believed to be extremely old. A typical Roscommon is a big 

 upstanding sheep, as tall as the Cotswold or Lincoln, though not so 

 heavy a " hardy and active forager, which thrives well on bleak 

 exposed uplands and on its native fertile plains, and is consequently 

 a good tenant-farmers' sheep." The sheep are not noted for early 

 maturity, being fed naturally and not forced, but the ewes are good 

 milkers, and produce early-maturing lambs by Shropshire or other 

 Down rams. Although more or less indebted to the English 

 Leicester cross, most of the improvement wrought in the breed 

 has, it is believed, been due to the careful selection of rams by 

 private breeders within the breed itself. 



The breed is hornless and the head gaily carried ; the face long 

 and white, with or without a tuft of wool on the forehead ; the 



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