184 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



ence of less than one-fifth between the live and death weight. It is 

 added that the only feed of this sheep during the past summer was 

 clover pasture, hurdled with others from 15th of Octoher to 15th of 

 November. From that time to his being slaughtered and exhibited, 

 2-2d of February, he was fed, with three South-down bucks, under 

 cover, with turnips, buckwheat, and clover ; one bushel of turnips 

 and three quarts of buckwheat, together with two pounds of hay, 

 ■were fed to the four daily. It is enough to ensure confidence in the 

 accuracy of this statement that it appears to be from the editor of the 

 Cultivator himself. 



The Lincolnshire Sheep are described by Mr. Ellman as being 

 "faces white; bones large; legs white, thick, and rough; carcass 

 long, thin, and weak ; wool fine and long, from ten to eighteen inches, 

 weighing per fleece, when killed at three years old, an average of 

 about eleven pounds; flesh coarse grained ; slow feeders, calculated 

 only for the richest pastures; constitutions tender." 



Mr. L. D. Cleft, of Somers, New York, had a large flock of this 

 breed in 1840, and states in the Cultivator of that year that he had 

 "raised in 1839 from sixty-four ewes, (chiefly ewes two and three 

 years old), ninety-two lambs, and had not lost a single lamb by reason 

 of exposure." That when his ewes were older, " more than half had 

 twins." Mr. C. says further, in 1841 — "The present winter my 

 primest wethers went to market about the first of December, twenty- 

 four in number; six of these sheep were three years old, and gave a 

 total dead weight of eight hundred and seventy-nine pounds, or one 

 hundred and forty-six and a half pounds per carcass, equal to thirty- 

 six and a half pounds per quarter; and I am informed that one of 

 these sheep gave thirty-six pounds of caul or rough fat." This breed 

 is sometimes mistaken, or passed off for the Dishley or Leicester 

 breed, which is more perfectly formed, of perhaps somewhat earlier 

 maturity, but not so large by eight or ten pounds to the quarter. 



The CoTswoLD. — The same English writer, in whom we have 

 already expressed our respectful confidence, treats of the Cotswold 

 sheep as one of the " varieties" of the Lincolnshire, the " Treswater" 

 being another, and describes the Cotswold as " in most respects re- 

 sembling the parent breed, but superior; wool not so long as that of 

 the original sort; mutton fine grained and full sized, capable of great 

 improvement by proper crossing. Mr. Thomas Wells, of Hampnett, 

 has favoured us with the foUowinor particulars on the improved con- 

 dition of this excellent breed: — "The Cotswold sheep, previously to 

 being crossed with the Leicester, were of large size, well woolled, and 

 good sucklers, but high on the shoulders, with a hollow behind, in- 

 clined to a thin fore-flank and coarseness in bone. In their improved 

 state, they are rendered not only much finer in bone, but fit for market 

 in half the period they were formerly, as they were not fatted until 

 three or four years old ; but now they are seldom offered to a butcher 

 at more than two years. Their size is not quite so large as before the 

 cross, but when fat, average about the same weight, which by com- 



