HILL AND HEATH BREEDS. 49 



wool, growing on a clear pink skin, is often 15 in. in length, of 

 very fine quality, and ewes yield up to 10 Ib. or 12 Ib. The sheep 

 is well covered at all parts, and the meat of superior quality to 

 that of the essentially long-wool breeds. 



It is a distinctive breed in which the forest and long-wool traits, 

 with a slight Down trace, from which the facial colouration is 

 derived, are all distinctively marked, though well amalgamated. 

 Dun markings which, historically, are a relic of the Welsh character 

 (Wales once included Cornwall), are not approved, but black 

 spots of hair on black skin, deepening in the neighbourhood of the 

 nose and round the eyes, are regarded as characteristic. The sheep 

 are economically kept mainly on grass with a little hay, and the 

 ewes, which are good mothers, cross well with the Down breeds 

 to produce fat lambs. By good selection the breed has been 

 enormously improved, without impairing its usefulness on the 

 exposed pasturage which it grazes. 



WESTERN OR OLD WILTS BREED. 



The Western or Old Wilts breed became extinct in its native 

 district some eighty years ago, owing to its being crossed with 

 other breeds, notably the Southdown, when it became the founda- 

 tion stock of the Hampshire Down. A small offshoot of this 

 breed apparently was taken into Wales, where it missed the Down 

 crossing, and has remained fairly true to type, though improved 

 by selection. The sheep are valued for crossing with draft 

 Mountain sheep to produce fat lambs, and in parts of Bucks and 

 Northamptonshire small flocks are seen. They are prized for fat 

 lamb production. These districts were much visited by cattle 

 and sheep dealers from Wales for many generations, and doubtless 

 in this way they reached the farmers in the South-East Midlands, 

 who use them on any breed for lamb purposes. 



There is difficulty in maintaining the breed in a pure condition 

 owing to the small numbers remaining, and in some cases the 

 Dorset Horn is being used on the old Wilts ewes. The quality of 

 the meat is good, and their popularity for fat lamb indicates good 

 thriving properties. As a wool sheep they have little to recommend 

 them as the fleece is light, and they share with some of the older 

 unimproved heath breeds, though to a greater degree, the charac- 

 teristic of peeling or shedding their fleece. With the older sheep 

 this takes place in April or May, and with the lambs in July. There 

 is no Flock Book. It is an old heath breed with strong horns, some- 

 thing of the type of the Dorset Horn, but they spring more from 

 the crown and throw out rather wider. Practically a whitefaced 

 breed, they are greyish about the muzzle, and the pelt carries 

 dark spots. 



