158 BRITISH SHEEP AND SHEPHERDING. 



cheaply grown. Its seeding takes place at any time from March 

 to September. The earlier sown becomes fit to feed in late summer ; 

 sometimes when fed very early it is fed off again in autumn, and 

 then left to provide spring food. This is mentioned to show how 

 the cropping is expressed on these lime-sweet, easily-worked soils. 

 Although good swedes are grown over a big acreage, they do not 

 ordinarily run to the heavy crops met with on stronger soils in 

 moister climates, but they are relied upon as a good standby 

 in late winter and spring, before serious attack is made on the 

 mangels. To the breeder of early lambs the mangel is the sheet- 

 anchor in later spring ; the Down men recognise this, because, in 

 cold, backward springs, they are a reliable food when the catch 

 crops, upon which so much reliance is laid, fail to come forward. 

 Moreover, in April, May and June, no matter how good other 

 keep may be, mangels are always helpful. 



Early Maturity. With these remarks as to the sources of food 

 and environment, one may more readily, and without occupying 

 too much space, treat with the sheep. The improvement in sheep 

 during the past century has done away with the necessity for 

 allowing sheep to live three or four years before going to the butcher. 

 In the grass -land districts where the root crop is not sufficient 

 to fatten the sheep on roots during winter, the lambing season 

 commences late, and the sheep, to a large extent, are not fattened 

 until the following year, when rich grass comes again. With arable - 

 land sheep the maxim is " a sheep a year," whether they are born 

 early or late. With the Hampshire Down it is often a case of a, 

 sheep in three-quarters of a year shorn in July, and every appear- 

 ance of a wether in November except the teeth. The high pressure 

 of the feeding and growth is in relation to the intensiveness of 

 the cropping. All the Down sheep are not fed at this high pressure ,. 

 some receive comparatively little concentrated food ; they may 

 be bred in March instead of January, and be sold at the later 

 fairs, to go eastward to the swede-growing farms of Hunts, Beds 

 and adjoining counties, to come out as a second or third string 

 of fat sheep off the roots, meeting the mutton market just before 

 grass-fed mutton is available. These sheep, as lambs, are regarded 

 more in the light of converters of the food of the farm, whether 

 it be of the arable land or the Down pasturage, which they deal 

 with in a very economical and profitable manner. The flocks 

 of the Western Downs are generally on a large scale, as are the 

 farms on which they are kept. Their success is largely due to the 

 opportunities which large farms afford in comparison with those 

 which small holdings provide. Only men with large capital,, 

 scope and skill could have modelled and developed such a splendid 

 breed as the Hampshire Down. Flocks of a thousand ewes upwards, 

 are by no means uncommon. 



