152 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3. 



size of the present race has been increased, and 

 the form has been improved by crossing. It is, 

 however, said, that they have become less hardy, 

 and worse nurses; and, in particular, so very nice 

 in their food, that they wili starve on the same 

 kind of land where the former sort of smaller and 

 more compact sheep lived well. Another serious 

 consequence of the change is also said to have 

 been produced by this delicacy of appetite — that 

 by rejecting the teed of the downs, on which the 

 chief dependence of the flock master rests, the 

 herbage has gradually grown coarser; which evil 

 has been further increased by the consequence of 

 shortening the stock previously kept; it being a 

 well known fact, that, to a certain extent, the 

 closer the downs are fed, the more sheep they will 

 support.* Hut it is more probable that the great- 

 est injury done to the downs has been occasioned 

 by the system, pursued during the high prices of 

 corn, of breaking them up, and after exhausting 

 them by repeated cropping, then laying them 

 down with artificial grasses which soon wear out, 

 and coarse natural grasses then take possession of 

 the land, instead of the finer sward with which it 

 had been previously covered. 



It has been also "found that the quality of the 

 wool has been injured by the new system of feed- 

 ing; and in this county, as well as in Norfolk, the 

 native breed has been nearly superseded by that of 

 the Southdowns. 



V. The Dorset Breed have small horns with 

 white faces and \e<rx: the wool of the. pure breed is 

 of an intermediate kind, between long and short, 

 and of middling fineness, weighing from three and 

 a half to five pounds per fleece; and the carcass 

 averaging eighteen pounds per quarter, of excel- 

 lent mutton. But great numbers of Southdown 

 sheep are bred in the county, and in many in- 

 stances the blacks have been intermixed, and the 

 character of the original stock proportionably al- 

 tered. They are a hardy race, beincj chiefly bred 

 on open downs, and inured to the fold; but their 

 principal value consists in the peculiar forwardness 

 of the ewes, which take the ram at a much earlier 

 period than any other species, and are therefore 

 much sought for, and command high prices for 

 the purpose of producing house-lamb for winter 

 consumption. 



The Dorset sheep arc chiefly to be found in the 

 county from which they take their name, and in 

 the neighboring borders of Devonshire; but a va- 

 riety of' the same breed occurs in Dean Forest, 

 and on the 3fendip Hills — a small compact ani- 

 mal, that will thrive on the poorest soil and fatten 

 on such land as will scarcely keep other sorts 

 alive. Pasturage ever so dry and exposed will 

 feed this kind: they are very hardy; their wool 

 fine; and the mutton is also excellent for the table, 

 being full of gravy and of a rich flavor, t The 

 Mendip Breed resembles, in many points, the 

 merinos; and there is a tradition that the original 

 stock of the Spanish fine-woolled sheep was ob- 

 tained either from those hills or from those of 

 Cotswold, in Gloucestershire; but the breed now 

 prevailing in the latter district bears no likeness to 

 them. 



The Polled Sheep may be divided into two 



* Agricultural Survey of Wilts, p. 142. 

 t See the Agricultural Survey of Somersetshire, 3d 

 edit. p. 145. 



classes — the long, and the short-ivoclled — the pe- 

 culiar merits of which have for many years form- 

 ed a subject of discussion among agriculturists. 

 Each has valuable properties, and efforts have 

 been made to blend them, by crosses, but hitherto 

 without complete success: nature seems to have 

 intended them for different soils, and the short- 

 woolled breeds, which thrive upon the bleakest 

 hills, degenerate when removed into rich pastures, 

 which arc alone capable of maintaining the long- 

 woolled species. 



VI. The Leicester sheep take the lead among 

 the long'woolled kind; and of these there are 

 three nearly distinct species: — 



1. The Forest Sheep, which, though not con- 

 fined to the open district of Charnwood Forest, 

 were probably the common field stock and original 

 breed of the county. They are mostly polled, 

 though some have small horns; are generally 

 white, but sometimes gray-laced, with legs of the 

 same color; are covered with coarse combing 

 wool; and are altogether an inferior race. 



2. The Old Leicester, which are probably de- 

 scended either from the still more ancient stock of 

 Charnwood, improved by better feeding, and by 

 crosses with rams from the rich pastures of Lin- 

 colnshire; or from a large-boned, coarse- wooded 

 breed, long common to the midland counties. 

 They are large, heavy, flat-sided, strong in the 

 bone, and somewhat coarse in the offal and pelt; 

 hut full of wool of a combing quality. They are 

 well adapted for the rich, deep, feeding soils, upon 

 which weight of mutton and of wool are more 

 material objects for profit than fineness of quality; 

 and, on such lands, the rams are commonly 

 brought to weigh forty pounds the quarter, with a 

 fleece of twelve to fourteen pounds. 



3. The New Leicester, or Dishley Breed are an 

 improved kind of the old species. Their forms 

 are handsome; color white. Their heads are 

 clean and small, their necks short, and their 

 breasts full; their bodies are round, with broad, 

 straight backs, but the bellies rather light, or tuck- 

 ed up; their legs and the whole bone are fine, and 

 particularly small in proportion to their size; their 

 pelts thin, and the wool long and fine of its kind, 

 •renerally averaging seven pounds to the fleece. 

 They are of a quiet disposition, fatten early and 

 kindly, and are capable of being brought to a 

 great weight, on a smaller proportion of food than 

 other breeds of the same size, the fat wethers ge- 

 nerally weighing (when shear-hogs) twenty-five 

 pounds per quarter, and the ewes twenty-two 

 pounds: the flesh is fine grained and well flavored, 

 but. too fat to please most palates. 



The final improvement of this breed is unques- 

 tionably due to the late Mr. Bakewell; but there 

 are various opinions respecting its origin. Mr. 

 Marshall attributes it to one Joseph A Horn, of 

 Clifton, in Leicestershire, who, from being a 

 plough-boy, raised himself by industry to the sit- 

 uation of an eminent farmer, and Avas the first 

 who distinguished himself, in the midland district, 

 by the possession of a superior breed of sheep. 

 He was known to purchase his ewes at a distance, 

 and it has since been ascertained that, he chiefly 

 obtained them in the Melton quarter of the county; 

 but, in whatever manner he raised his breed, it 

 appears certain that it was in high estimation be- 

 fore Mr. BakewelTs time, as it was customary for 

 the most careful breeders to resort to Clifton for 



