112 THE SHEPHEKD'S MANUAL. 



Ibs. of wool for their first fleece. The Oxford-down has a head 

 much like a Cotswold, with a tuft on the forehead, but with dark 

 face and legs, which are derived from its other parent, the Hamp- 

 shire-down ; a thick set somewhat curly fleece, a round barrel on 

 short legs, and yields, when less than two years old, a mutton con- 

 sidered by its friends as superior to the Southdown of the same 

 age, but inferior to it when older than two years. Its native 

 locality is a district at the foot of the Cotswold hills, an area of 

 mixed soils, abounding in springs, and requiring much draining. 

 At particular seasons in the winter, neither the Cotswold nor the 

 Southdown could be made to thrive upon these wet soils, but the 

 cross-bred sheep have successfully withstood the inconvenience 

 without being affected with the usual disease of the district, such 

 as giddiness, or water on the brain. They have been found very 

 profitable feeders, requiring but little purchased food, and stand- 

 ing the exposure incident to folding upon green crops in the winter, 

 without difficulty. Good rams of this breed bring about $60 per 

 head at the ram sales. 



MEDIUM AND SHORT-WOOL SHEEP. 



THE SHROPSHIRE SHEEP. The Shropshire is one of the cross- 

 bred sheep that owes its origin in part to the Cotswold, the other 

 parent being an original breed of sheep common to the district, 

 and known as the " Morfe Common " sheep. This word " com- 

 mon " does not express quality, but is used here as referring to an 

 unenclosed tract of land known as "common land," or public 

 property; such tracts formerly existed in many localities in Eng- 

 land, and to a considerable extent in the early settlements in New 

 England. These sheep of Morfe Common, (which was a tract of 

 600,000 acres of land), were the original stock upon which crosses 

 of Cotswold, and afterwards of Leicester and Southdown, were 

 made at various periods. This course of improvement appears to 

 have been begun about 1792. From the unequal admixture of 

 blood, the Shropshires vary somewhat in character, sometimes 

 possessing the character of a short-wool, and sometimes that of a 

 medium-wool sheep. The original sheep was horned, black or 

 brown faced, hardy, and free from disease, producing 44 to 56 Ibs. 

 of mutton to the carcass, and a fleece of 2 Ibs. of moderately fine 

 wool, which was used in the cloth manufacture. After three- 

 quarters of a century of cultivation, they are now without horns, 

 with faces and legs of a dark or spotted gray color ; thick, meaty 

 neck ; well shaped, rather small and fine head ; neat ears well set 



