No. 4.] SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 109 



the world, not only for themselves, but as fixing their char- 

 acteristics on every breed upon which they have been 

 crossed ; and this they owe to the prepotency of their blood, 

 conducted down unmixed for nearly a thousand years. 



But the South Downs were not always what they are now ; 

 a little more than a hundred years ago an enterprising sheep 

 owner, Mr. John Ellman, commenced the improvement of 

 the South Downs by selecting judiciously and breeding most 

 carefully. This was afterward continued with equal skill by 

 Mr. Jonas Webb, who with others has brought these beauti- 

 ful animals to their present perfect condition ; their pleasant 

 brown faces, their broad, straight backs, their deep briskets 

 and splendid legs of mutton are everywhere known. For 

 this part of the country they and their congeners, the Shrops, 

 the Hampshire and the Oxford, are the most valuable and 

 popular sheep we have. 



Hampshire Downs. 

 From the South Downs, bred on the old white-faced horned 

 sheep of Hampshire and Wiltshire, came the grand Hampshire 

 Down ; but the strong blood of the South Down has done 

 away with the horns, and given them its own dark face. 

 They are large, heavy sheep, producing splendid hardy 

 lambs, with a good fleece and an admirable leg of mutton ; 

 and they, as well as all the Downs, impart their charac- 

 teristics wherever used. 



Shropshires. 

 The Shropshires were produced by breeding the South 

 Downs on the small, dark-faced horned sheep of Shropshire 

 on the border of Wales ; the size was improved by a cross or 

 two of Leicester, and reverting to the South Downs, who 

 have taken off the horns, and made them one of the most 

 popular breeds in England and in this State, bearing all the 

 excellent characteristics of the Downs. 



Oxford Downs. 

 The Oxford Downs were large and white-faced ; but under 

 the influence of the South Downs and the Hampshire Downs, 

 and with an occasional dip into the Cotswolds to add to and 



