HAMPSHIRES. 



269 



occurred some time previous to the Civil War, and the largest and 

 finest flocks were found in the South. During the war, however (1860- 

 65), the great bulk of the Hampshire Down flocks in the South were 

 destroyed, and the breed practically exterminated in this section. 

 Within the past decade they have been quite extensively imported to 

 various parts of the South and Southwest, and are said to surpass their 

 progenitors the Southdowns in the readiness with which they 

 acclimate and adapt themselves to our peculiar conditions. 



DESCRIPTION AND CHARACTERISTICS. 



Color of face and legs dark brown, almost black ; the ears are of 

 good size, and more pointed than those of the Southdown ; the head 



HAMPSHIRE EWES. 



Imported by JAMES WOOD, Mt. Kisco, N. Y. (By courtesy of " Country Gentleman," Albany, N. Y.) 



is large and the nose decidedly Roman ; the back is straight, and 

 broader than in either the Southdown or Shropshire. As already noted, 

 it is the largest of the Downs families proper, about equaling the Ox- 

 fordshire (which latter, although classed as a Down, should be placed in 

 a class intermediate between Downs and Longwools), fat two-year-old 

 wethers weighing as high as 275 to 300 pounds, and mature breeding 

 rams scaling an average say between 200 and 225 pounds. Although 

 heavier than Shropshires, they are hardly so symmetrical, being longer 

 in the legs and somewhat lighter underneath, but the back at the loin is 



