550 SHEEP 



The promotion of Southdown sheep in an official way was 

 first undertaken by the organization in 1882 of the American 

 Southdown Breeders' Association, which has had headquarters at 

 Springfield, Illinois, for many years. This association has pub- 

 lished seventeen flock books up to 1919. In England the South- 

 down Sheep Society, organized about 1892, promotes the welfare 

 of the breed. Since 1893, when the first volume of the British flock 

 book was published, the society has published thirty-two volumes, 

 including the registration of a large number of sheep. 



The distribution of the Southdown is world-wide. It has been 

 exported from England into almost every country of Europe, 

 Africa, Australia, and America, where civilization and sheep hus- 

 bandry at all prevail. Even as late as 1903 exports were made 

 to the United States, France, Russia, Australia, the Argentine 

 Republic, Chile, and Japan. Perhaps no breed of sheep during its 

 career has had an equally wide distribution. In the United States 

 Southdowns are recorded as bred in nearly fifty states, impor- 

 tant flocks being kept in Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, 

 Wisconsin, Vermont, West Virginia, and. Kentucky. Southdowns, 

 all things considered, are more popular in the South than any 

 other breed. They are also well represented in Canada, notably 

 in Ontario. 



