Chapter LI. 



SOUTHDOWNS. 



The Southdown heads the list of middle-wool mutton sheep ; both 

 from its acknowledged superiority, and from the fact that nearly, if not 

 quite all, of the other "Downs" are indebted to it for much of their 

 present excellence. The breed takes its name from the slopes of the 

 Chalk Hills of England, called "Downs." 



Referring to this place of their origin, Professor Low (1842) says : 



' ' The Scotch Downs of Sussex consist of a range of low chalky hills, are five or six 

 miles in breadth, stretching along the coast upwards of sixty miles, and passing into the 

 chalky lands of Hants on the west. In contact with this range of hills is a tract of low 

 cultivated ground, which is usually connected with the Down farms, although many of 

 the latter have no vale or flat land attached. The herbage of these hills is short, but 

 well adapted for the keeping of sheep, of which vast numbers have, in every known 

 period, occupied the pastures. Whilst the dryness of the air, the moderate elevation of 

 the land, and consequent mildness of the climate, are all eminently favorable to the 

 rearing of a race of Downs or mountain sheep, the contact of the cultivated country af- 

 fords the means of supplying artificial food. It is this combination of favorable circum- 

 stances which has rendered these calcareous hills capable of supporting a greater number 

 of sheep than perhaps any tract of similar fertility in the country, and has afforded the 

 means to the breeders of applying the resources of artificial feeding to their improve- 

 ment. 



"The original breed of the Sussex Downs was not superior to that of many other 

 districts of the chalk formation ; but the means of supplying the animal with artificial 

 food, which the geographical situation of this long and narrow chain of hills in contact 

 with the richer country afforded, aided the breeder in applying to the improvement of 

 the race a system of breeding and feeding which has rendered the Southdown breed the 

 most esteemed in the countries suited to it, of all the short-wooled sheep of England." 



From this it will be seen that the Southdown was a natural out- 

 growth of circumstances, and really "native" to the locality from which 

 it takes its name. 



Improvement of the breed began about 1775-80, but received its 

 greatest impulse about the beginning of the present century, since 

 which time it has been constantly active and progressive. 



To Mr. John Ellman, of the Glynde farm, near Lewis, in Sussex- 

 shire, is universally accorded first place among the improvers of South- 

 downs. 



He began about 1780, and devoted the remainder of his life some 

 52 years to careful, unselfish work in advancing his favorite breed 

 of sheep. 



While Mr. Bakewell was fully his equal in point of skill as a 



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