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THE DORSET DOWN. 



The Dorset Down, West Country, or Improved Hampshire 

 Down breed was brought to public notice outside its home district 

 in 1904 by the formation of a Dorset Down sheep society and the 

 issue of Volume I of its Flock Book. This was about eighty years 

 after the present type of the breed had been established. In the 

 last volume of the Flock Book there are 87 registered flocks 

 including some 45,000 sheep. 



It is a middle type of Down Sheep, pre-eminently suited to 

 Dorsetshire. It was originally formed by mating Southdown rams 

 with Hampshire ewes, and using the rams from the flocks thus 

 formed to improve the original Down sheep of the West, which, it 

 is claimed, are more ancient, than the Hampshires themselves. In 

 times past the Dorset breeders went to the leading improved 

 Hampshire flocks for rams to secure the requisite change of blood, 

 " with the result that the Dorset Down breed now registered, 

 although of finer bone and often of lighter colour, is closely 

 related to, and possesses the principal features of the Hampshire 

 Down type, modified by local circumstances." 



Characteristics of the Breed. A good type of Dorset Down is free 

 from all coarseness, and has a rather long, full, clean face and upper 

 jaw, and a full muzzle. The face, ears, and legs are of a greyish- 

 brown colour. A fine close fleece goes well down to the hocks and 

 knees, round the cheeks, between the ears, and on to the forehead ; 

 but wool under the eyes, or across the bridge of the nose, on the 

 ears, or below the hocks and knees, is to be avoided. 



It is claimed for the breed that it is a rent-paying type, equally 

 at home between hurdles or on the open grazing grounds upon 

 which the flocks feed for six or eight months in the year. Dorset 

 Downs produce small mutton of excellent quality, weighing from 66 

 to 72 Ib. at eight to nine months old, or from 40 to 48 Ib. as sucking 

 lamb at ten to twelve weeks. The average fleece in a ewe flock is 

 about 5 Ib. 



Dorset Down Classes at the Smitlifield Shoiv, 1908-1911. 



THE DORSET HORN. 



The Dorset Horn is a pink-nosed, white-faced horned sheep, 

 possessing striking characteristics, and is highly popular in circum- 

 stances for which it is suited. Apart from flocks scattered 

 widely over the country, "the chief home of the leading Dorset 

 Horn flocks is now in the southern and western parts of the 

 county, with Dorchester as the centre, and in the Isle of Wight, 

 where very old established and extensive flocks are kept." Owing 



