No. 4.] SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 107 



Europe ; they brought with them domestic animals and their 

 implements of husbandry to subdue and cultivate the wilder- 

 ness. Each, as would be natural to suppose, made choice 

 of the favorite breed of his own immediate district to trans- 

 port to the new world, and the admixture of these breeds 

 formed the mongrel family known as native sheep ; amid the 

 perils of war and the incursions of wild beasts of prey these 

 were preserved with attentive care. The descendants of 

 these sheep, known in our day as "native " in distinction from 

 the breeds of recent known importation, were of two types, — 

 one with white faces and the other with dark or spotted 

 faces and legs. These last were known in the Connecticut 

 valley and through the Western part of the State as 

 "English runts" or "Irish smuts," and were undoubtedly 

 taken from the counties lying on the south coast of England, 

 Devon, Hampshire and Sussex, and were the same stock of 

 sheep from the Downs of Sussex and Hampshire, that in 

 later years, under the care and skill of John Ellman, Jonas 

 Webb and others, became the matchless " South Downs." 



A very convincing proof of this occurred in my own 

 experience. Some thirty years ago or more, when Mr. Fay 

 imported the Oxford Downs, I had from him a large superior 

 ram which I coupled with fifty of the Irish smut ewes picked 

 up for me by a friendly drover in the Western part of 

 Franklin County and Southern Vermont. The product was 

 marvellous ; I had succeeded in obtaining what horse men 

 would call a perfect " nick." The type of the lambs, several 

 of which were twins, was entirely changed from that of the 

 ewes, and seemed to assume the character of the improved 

 South Down in the Oxford Down ram ; shortened the neck, 

 colored the faces uniformly brown, widened the breast, 

 shortened the legs, put on more wool, sprung out the ribs, 

 deepened and broadened the hind quarters, and gave them a 

 weight of seventy-five pounds in ninety clays. So I believe 

 the old South Down blood was in our " native" sheep, and 

 only needed developing. 



The larger white-faced, long-legged, bare-legged, light- 

 fleeced sheep of the country were originally brought in 

 considerable numbers from the Texel and other parts of 

 Holland. These common sheep gave a wool only suited 



