76 SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



well sprung, with a full flank ; legs and feet straight and 

 black, with fine and flat bone; woolled to knees and hocks, 

 clean below ; fore legs set well apart ; hind legs well filled 

 with mutton ; belly well covered with wool ; fleece moderately 

 short, close fine fibre without tendency to mat or felt together, 

 and not shading off into dark wool or hair ; the skin is fine, 

 soft and pink. 



Suffolk sheep are not by any means confined to their 

 county, but do exceedingly well out of their own district, 

 as specially noted by the Society's inspector when reporting 

 upon the outlying flocks in 1909. Exports have also been 

 made to France, Belgium, Spain, Canada, the United States, 

 Chile, the Argentine, and other parts of South America. 

 The records of the breed place it in the first rank among 

 modern races of sheep, as was well shown in 1910 and 1912, 

 when it won the Prince of Wales's Challenge Cup at the 

 Smithfield Club Show. 



THE DORSET HORN. 



The horned sheep of Dorsetshire form a singularly well- 

 marked race. In all the other Down sheep we find short 

 wool associated with brown faces and legs, but in the Dorset 

 we see a survival of a white-faced, horned, and short-woolled 

 race, which has been for a very long period associated with 

 the chalk hills of the county. Description of the old Wilt- 

 shire croocks in some respects favour the idea that the 

 present Dorset sheep are similar to those extinct Wiltshires, 

 which disappeared early in the present century, owing to the 

 westward progress of the Southdowns. The Dorset breeders 

 appear to have settled upon the process of selection rather 

 than of crossing. They possess a sheep with special charac- 

 teristics, and they wisely stick to them. Crossing was no 

 doubt attempted, both with Devonshire Knots and the 

 Leicesters ; but William Youatt informs us that the attempt 

 was not successful, and the breed has been handed down as 

 truly representative of the old stock. 



