THE G~D RYELAND SHEEP. 43 



of close breeding carried out for over a hundred years, and 

 contrast with the robuster forms and stronger heads of the 

 more modern pure and crossed breeds. 



We shall during the next chapters endeavour to trace the 

 history, and point out the qualities, of the middle-woolled or 

 Down races of sheep, and in doing so a brief notice must 

 be allowed of the finest-woolled sheep which England has 

 produced the old Ryeland breed. Whether this breed was 

 originally derived from the Spanish Merino or not, we cannot 

 say ; but certainly no race is more deserving of the name of 

 a fme-woolled sheep than this. It differs from most of our 

 Down races, although there is a certain resemblance between 

 it and the Dorset Horned race. It was, and is, white-faced 

 and polled, and its natural habitat appears to have been that 

 light-land district around Ross in Herefordshire, named the 

 Ryelands, from its suitability to the growth of rye. 



THE OLD RYELAND SHEEP. 



The Ryeland sheep is one of those races which, having 

 been superseded by others for a long course of years, seems 

 now to have found friends and promoters. Twenty years ago 

 the Ryeland sheep was spoken of as something that had been, 

 but was no longer. Like the Longhorn among cattle it had 

 found a rival, and that rival was the Cotswold. Thus, in 

 1800, Herefordshire contained 500,000 short-woolled sheep 

 (Ryelands), furnishing 4,200 packs, the weight of the fleece 

 being 2 Ibs. In 1828 the number of packs of short wool had 

 diminished to 2,800, but no fewer than 5,550 packs of long 

 wool were grown in the county (Youatt). " This fact," says 

 the author just quoted, " speaks volumes as to the revolution 

 that is going forward, and plainly points out the farmers' 

 interest and duty." 



The old Ryeland sheep was the nearest approach to a fme- 

 woolled sheep which we possessed. Its wool was coarser, 

 certainly, than the Saxony Merino, but it was much finer 



