No. 10. 



Clayton. 



313 



CLAYTON. 



Bred and fed by Major Philip Reybold, Delaware. 



Live weight, 227 lbs. — dead weight, the four quarters, 130. 



The two-years old wether pourtrayed above, was the most beautiful of those which were 

 exhibited and slaughtered on the 3d of March, by Schneck & Brothers; and, it may perhaps 

 be added, the most perfect of his class that was ever exhibited in the United States by any 

 breeder. The size of the head and the bones of the legs was remarkably small — to appear- 

 ance almost unnaturally so, but by no means larger than are made to appear in our engrav- 

 ing, the shape of the former being of that snake-like figure as there exiiibited. A portion 

 of this splendid animal is still at the office of the Cabinet, the thickness of the top of the rib 

 and the plate, astonishing every one. 



The new Leicester sheep, although smaller in bulk of body than the long-wooled races 

 which they supplanted — namely, the old Lincoln, Teeswater, and Cotswold — are yet of the 

 larger class of sheep with respect to weight; their limbs being shorter and their bodies more 

 round, compact and deep than those, they are of greater weight in proportion to their appa- 

 rent bulk; at the same time, their actual size is various, depending much on the wish of the 

 breeder to possess larger or smaller animals, and on the fertility, natural or acquired, of the 

 districts in which they are reared. In general, it may be said that the wethers weigh from 

 25 lb. to 35 lbs. per quarter when fatted in their second year, the wool being of medium 

 length, having a staple of six or eight inches. But it is not in the size or weight of body, 

 nor in the productiveness or quality of wool, that the real value of the new Leicester breed 

 consists; its superiority is to be found in its more perfect form and aptitude to fatten at an 

 early age, in which respects it surpasses ail the other varieties of long-wooled sheep which 

 have been cultivated in England, or naturalized in any part of Europe; for they can readily 

 be fatted for human food at the age of 15 months, or when they are called shearlings ; and 

 in no case do they need to exceed the age of two years. The hind and fore-quarters more 

 nearly approximate in this, th^n in any other breed ; the fatty tissue being more equally 

 spread over the external muscles, tending to accumulate less about the kidneys and internal 

 parts; and hence the breed has never been so great a favourite with the butcher as some 

 others; but the mutton is not surpassed by any of the other long-wooled breeds whatever. 



