180 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY 



presented of the Buck imported in 1838, by E. Prentice, of Mount 

 Hope, near Albany. 



The Sheep on the Green Grass. 



Mr. Prentice sa3's they are " in size between the Cotswold and our 

 native sheep, and will weig'h in ordinary flesh from one hundred and 

 sixty to two hundred pounds; the one of which this is an engraving, 

 weighs one hundred and eighty pounds. They are of round, full and 

 beautiful form, and of great weight for their apparent dimensions, 

 possessed of extraordinary vigour and constitution, fitting them for 

 great endurance of keep and exposure. In one flock of about fifty, I 

 have never known an invalid for an hour, or one low in flesh, though 

 their pasture has often been' as short as I have ever known one, on 

 which sheep have been sustained." 



Of the improved South-down, as they are at this day in great per- 

 fection in England, no further description need be added than the 

 following sketch by Mr. Men., editor of the American Agriculturist, in 

 an interesting account of his visit to Mr. Webb, an English farmer, 

 in company with the Hon. Andrew Stevenson., then our minister to Eng- 

 land, whose judgment as an agriculturist was well displayed, and 

 whose least service to his country was important, if it consisted in 

 selecting and bringing home some of the finest specimens of South- 

 down to be found in Great Britain. 



" To give an idea of the weight of Mr. Webb's animal, the South- 

 down buck selected by Mr. Rotch, though only six months old, 

 weighed one hundred and fifty-two pounds on the scales; bishop 

 Mead's, eighteen months old, two hundred and forty-eight pounds ; 

 and Mr. Stevenson's, of the same age, two hundred and fifty-four 



