42 SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



England. Thus, if we follow the large area occupied by 

 this great formation, we shall (with the exception of the 

 Yorkshire and Lincolnshire wolds) find it in Norfolk, and 

 with it appears the Norfolk Down sheep, short-woolled and 

 dark featured. There does not seem to be a county in which 

 extensive downs of chalk occur where there is not a corres- 

 ponding breed of brown-faced sheep. Suffolk, for example, 

 has long boasted a Down breed, which extended into Essex, 

 so far at least as did the chalk. Cambridgeshire, Bucking- 

 hamshire, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, 

 Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent each and 

 all boasted these active and hardy breeds of Down sheep. 

 From these, the native counties of this particular class, they 

 extended into others, and now find their home in Shropshire 

 and the adjoining counties under the name of Shropshire 

 sheep. 



The leading differences between these and the long-woolled 

 sheep have already been pointed out, but before treating at 

 length each of the short-woolled breeds, it seems necessary 

 again to draw attention to the great differences which mark 

 them as a class. 



Reference to Youatt's treatise on sheep, which appeared in 

 I 8S7> would show the reader the great advance which has 

 been made in sheep-breeding since his day. Many of the 

 differences between the breeds of various counties have 

 disappeared, and many new types have appeared. The Ox- 

 ford, Shropshire, and improved Hampshire Down were then 

 unknown in their present forms, and the Southdown and 

 Leicester were then regarded as paramount. What a change 

 has been wrought during these fifty years ! An inspection of 

 the pens of these two breeds at Islington, at one of the recent 

 shows of fat stock, showed these, once predominating breeds, in 

 a minority. Not only so, but time had told upon them, either 

 actually or comparatively. The Leicesters and the South- 

 downs exhibited symptoms of being over-bred. Their small 

 frames, fine bone, puny faces, show too clearly the effects 



