30 BRITISH SHEEP AND SHEPHERDING. 



mutton, few are so fastidious that they refuse to eat all the 

 sweet and dainty fat of this great little breed, unless the animal 

 be foolishly overfed. If Southdown mutton costs more per pound 

 than other kinds, those who habitually eat it regard it as not being 

 more expensive, as there is absolutely no waste. Owing to the 

 hard life these sheep lead on the exposed downs, a high average 

 number of lambs is not raised ; but on richer land, where they 

 are done well, they are equal to producing a lamb and a-half- 

 average. The Southdown gives a close fleece of fine wool ; when 

 Ellman took the breed in hand 2 Ib. to 2| Ib. was about an average. 

 A very small infusion of Leicester blood was put on the sheep 

 in the early days, and the practice lasted a very short time ; but 

 probably that little gave timely help to the breed improver in 

 improving the fleece. It is scarcely likely from analogy with other 

 heath breeds that selection would so rapidly have brought about 

 the change, unless help had been given from outside sources. 

 But all traceable influence has long since gone, as is natural when 

 there has been no introduction for more than a century. Apart 

 from its influence in breed making, the Southdown has great 

 value for crossing with other breeds, and it is a favourite cross with 

 the Kentish or Romney Marsh breed, which gives a sheep of fair 

 size, producing mutton of good quality. The cross makes good, fat 

 lambs, or they may be run on as wethers ; these crossbreds do 

 well in the turnip fold, but they can be very cheaply kept as a 

 purely grass sheep, and well suit the country lying to the north 

 of the Southdowns and the Kentish marshes. 



The Southdown is primarily a mutton breed, but it cuts a close 

 fleece of wool of very fine texture and quality, ranking highest 

 in the British wools, running from 5 Ib. to 8 Ib., according to 

 breeding and management of the flock. It is to the Southdown 

 that the breeds influenced by it thrive so well in the close fold ; 

 it was Ellman's intelligent farming that developed a wide system 

 of catch cropping and close folding that enabled him to feed and 

 maintain an improved breed ; this aptitude for the close fold 

 was transmitted, with the result that all Down breeds are well 

 suited to arable land farming. 



The description and scale of points recommended by the South- 

 down Sheep Society are given below. Somewhat similar descrip- 

 tions are given where other breed societies have published them. 

 They are useful as defining the views of those who have the direction 

 of the several races and the relative value they attach to the 

 individual points, whilst the features held as desirable for dis- 

 qualification hold special value in the breed's interest. Judging 

 strictly in accordance with scale is rarely practised ; in fact, what- 

 ever the animal, strict point judging cannot be followed wholly 

 satisfactorily. This is met with in the case of the Southdown 



