SHEEP. 215 



Oxford Downs aro sent to market at fourteen months old, 

 weighing eighty pounds, and shearing from seven to ten pounds 

 of wool. Mr. Grennell in his Report on Hhecp Ilushandry, to 

 the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, gives tlie weight of 

 Mr. Fay's Oxford Down ewes from one hundred and fifty to one 

 hundred and eighty pounds, of a ram in the same flock, three 

 hundred and sixty pounds, and of lambs five or six months old, 

 one hundred pounds. 



Shropshire Downs are said to dress from twenty-five to thirty 

 pounds per quarter, and to shear from five and one-half to 

 seven pounds of wool. It is said of them, that " for early 

 maturity, and weight of carcass and wool, with the least 

 amount of food, I believe they are not to be surpassed by any 

 breed, especially if their non-liability to disease, and their 

 fecundity, be duly taken into consideration." 



Cotswolds, at two years old, are made to weigh thirty-five 

 pounds to the quarter ; and it is said that a ram of this breed 

 has sheared seventeen pounds of " good coarse wool." 



South Down wethers, at two years old, weigh from eighty- 

 five to one hundred and twenty-five pounds, making " more 

 internal fat than others, and on this account being favorites 

 with the butcher." Tlie average weight of their fleeces in 

 England is three pounds, in this country it is said to be four 

 pounds. 



Leicesters, at two years old, weigh from twenty-five to thirty- 

 five pounds to the quarter, having such a preponderance of 

 external fat over internal, that while the London butchers show 

 the inside of the Down sheep, they hang the Leicesters with 

 the back out. The Leicesters yield about seven pounds of 

 somewhat inferior wool. 



There seems to be no data given for obtaining the compara- 

 tive cost of the wool and mutton of these various breeds; and 

 considering the differences in the cost of food, of pasturage, 

 &c., which exist in various localities, perhaps any exact calcu- 

 lation is impossible. We can only say of them, that they form 

 a part of agricultural industry, in that country where the most 

 careful experiments have been made in the art of farming, and 

 where the business of farming is brought within profitable rules. 



There is, however, a kind of sheep husbandry practiced in 

 less cultivated regions, which is worthy of notice. While the 



