68 BRITISH SHEEP AND SHEPHERDING. 



Downs, that crosses with them have largely occupied the land 

 once held by them being encouraged by the increase in arable 

 farming. The big Down breeds of the south and west of the country 

 owe many of their good features to the Cotswold, the Shropshire, 

 Hampshire, and Oxford especially benefiting. It may be taken 

 as a very fair axiom that for sheep of Down character to winter 

 well on roots in the close fold on cold, wet soils, some Cotswold 

 blood must be present hi a greater or less degree. 



The Cotswold played a great part in the formation of the Oxford 

 Down, as it had, at a more remote period, and in a much less degree, 

 in the Hampshire. The Oxford is the product mainly of the 

 crossing of the Cotswold and Hampshire, and experience shows 

 that the Oxford is the typical sheep for wintering on arable land 

 on the colder oolites ; moreover, the success of Oxford crossings 

 with other breeds as compared with other crosses, is noticeable 

 largely on those soils, and other similarly cold ones. The Cotswold, 

 in its old indigenous condition, built up a constitution that 

 enables it to winter under cold, wet conditions as none but hill 

 sheep can ; and no matter how small may have been the amount 

 of Cotswold incorporated into a type, that sheep will winter better 

 on cold lair than without the Cotswold influence. I had under 

 my almost daily observation for fully a quarter of a century, 

 flock experiments conducted for practical purposes by one of 

 the most gifted sheep breeders I have known. His soil was light, 

 medium, to heavy on the oolite in Bedfordshire. That county 

 has no indigenous breed, its old heath breed having long been 

 crossed out, though I can just remember throw-backs to it in 

 an occasional speckled-faced sheep in carelessly bred flocks. He 

 rang many changes in the course of years, but as he worked away 

 from the Cotswold cross too far, he found that the sheep suffered 

 in hardiness. He could work through to almost a pure Hamp- 

 shire, which was his aim, but on each occasion, as he got nearly 

 to purity, he had to bring in a fresh dash of Oxford to get 

 the Cotswold influence. This influence had been marked even 

 in his earlier experiments on Leicesters as a foundation stock. 

 Yet within twenty miles on the Hertfordshire chalks Hampshires 

 wintered perfectly ; in fact, would make another stone to a stone- 

 and-a-half more on a winter's feeding over drafts from the same 

 lots sent on to the Bedford oolites. It is not impossible that 

 other crosses would not give some of the necessary features to meet 

 the cold, wet folds ; but in working through the Downs I have not 

 witnessed it. The appreciation of the Cotswold for crossing with 

 the Suffolk when away from its driest lair, is shown by the fact 

 that some good old established flocks exist in the Eastern Counties. 



The aptitude of the Cotswold to thrive in wet, dirty folds is 

 often attributed to the clodding or bouldering of dirt that gathers 



