14 BRITISH SHEEP AND SHEPHERDING. 



it may be attenuated. There are certain characteristics left behind, 

 possibly very difficult to demonstrate, but so long as they are 

 there, they can be encouraged through selection to come into 

 greater prominence. 



It is held that very few sheep escaped crossing with the Leicester 

 during the first forty years after Bake well improved that breed. 

 All this was shown before there were any breed societies or con- 

 troversies as to breeds, and doubtless many who have held that 

 their flocks have never had any outside blood in them, but are 

 truly indigenous, have not known all. The Cheviot, too, did much 

 useful, though less-recognised, work. When selecting to head- 

 covering, involving the selection of those with a fat and wool 

 tendency, it is pretty certain that, as the old Heath breeds which 

 had little aptitude to produce fat, could supply these only in a 

 very moderate degree, they had to come out of the more fatty 

 breeds which intermingled with them at a date previously to the 

 time when, mainly during the last century, the new breeds were 

 evolving. Selection to this excessive head-covering, with its 

 accompaniment of the tendency for producing more fat, has really 

 meant the bringing into greater prominence the fat -developing 

 features of a remote cross, probably most often of the Leicester, but 

 at any rate of one of the fat-backed breeds. 



If it is worth while to maintain a very large portion of the British 

 sheep as producers of mutton of highest quality, anything in the 

 way of selection that works against it should be guarded against. 

 Much space has been give to the argument of this point because 

 there is unfortunately a tendency on the part of those doing 

 excellent work, otherwise in bringing to the front breeds that have 

 hitherto been regarded as being of minor importance, to repeat 

 the error which has been committed on some of the more prominent 

 breeds. Before they go further they had better learn what the 

 Suffolk men have done with their breed, and thoroughly digest it. 

 The popular fancy at the moment is for a covered head. The f oretop 

 of the Oxford is being stamped out of recognition, though possibly 

 not more than there is a call for in some directions. But the 

 Oxford always had a tendency to fat through its more direct 

 association with the Cotswold. It suits districts where some 

 improvement in the meat is required, without the loss of size, and 

 there is no doubt that an infusion of Cotswold in a Down breed 

 enables the offspring to thrive on arable land on the oolites and 

 other cold soils, as they cannot thrive to the best without it. 

 Consequently there are districts where the Oxford is a more popular 

 cross, though over a far larger area the Hampshire is preferred. 

 But if the Oxford men " Hamp " their breed too much they will, in 

 course of time, lose the distinctiveness, because the difference is 

 one of degree only. The fact that so distinctive a forelock as the 



