74 SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



in Scotland, and is popular in Ireland. Its greatest rivals 

 are the two races most recently described in these pages, 

 the Oxfordshire and Hampshire Downs. The Oxfordshire 

 and Shropshire sheep are so much alike that it is not always 

 easy to distinguish them from each other; but the chief 

 points of difference are to be seen in the shorter ear and the 

 greater closeness of wool on the head of the Shropshire sheep. 

 This latter is no doubt partly due to the methods of training, 

 but there appears in the Oxfordshire sheep to be a resem- 

 blance in the matter of fore-lock with the flowing top knot 

 of the Cotswolds. The fleece of the Shropshire is also finer 

 and more down-like in character, while the Oxfordshire 

 Down fleece is often gathered into strands or locks after the 

 manner of the Long-woolled breeds. 



Shropshire breeders have long kept individual pedigrees 

 of their sheep, and most of the good sires are named. Thus 

 we see sire Jupiter 3,560, dam by Touchstone 1,775. There 

 is a regular Flock-book kept and every sire can be traced. 



The Shropshire Sheep Society has been longer in existence 

 than any other, and no pedigrees of sheep are more carefully 

 recorded. It is the first breed we have met with in which the 

 sires are distinguished by a Flock-book number. We have 

 little doubt that a good deal of the success which Shropshire 

 sheep breeders have met with in the foreign and colonial 

 trades is due to the careful manner in which the pedigrees are 

 worked out. 



We are passing through an important epoch in sheep 

 breeding. Never was there a greater interest shown in this 

 branch of pastoral life, as indicated by the formation of 

 society after society for the promotion of various breeds. 

 The Shropshire breeders were followed, by the Suffolk Down 

 and the Oxfordshire Down men, and the breeders of Wen- 

 sleydale Longwools, and still more recently we have seen the 

 Hampshire flockmasters combine in an association founded 

 upon similar lines. Even the long-established and aristocratic 

 Southdown, despite its blue blood and indisputable lineage, 



