384 SHEEP 



Cirencester market in the first week in December, 1884, dressed 

 138 pounds per carcass, or 34.5 pounds per quarter dead weight, 

 and yielded 65.83 per cent dressed weight. In 1899, at the 

 Smithfield Club Show, the heaviest pen of Southdown wether 

 lambs averaged 161 pounds each. 



The Southdown cross-bred or grade has long met with great 

 favor in the mutton market. In fact the Southdown has played 

 a leading part in forming several breeds, notably the Shropshire, 

 Hampshire, and Oxford, though it has been used more or less on 

 other breeds to improve the fleshing and maturing qualities. 

 Grade lambs, the result of Southdown rams on common ewes 

 of the Merino type or of middle-wool form, will always be in 

 comparatively high demand by butchers. 



The adaptability of the Southdown to a variety of conditions 

 is very fair. On rolling land, and even on hilly land producing 

 plenty of pasture, they do well. On the slightly rolling, well- 

 drained lands of the central West they seem to thrive, while in 

 the South this has been one of the best-known breeds. They 

 graze well and are equally hardy with most middle-wool sheep. 



The breeding qualities of the Southdown are about average. 

 In 1856 Professor Wilson of Scotland wrote, "The ewes are 

 very prolific and are excellent mothers, commonly rearing 120 

 or 130 lambs to the 100 ewes." In recent years, as compared 

 with the Shropshire, the breed cannot be regarded as superior in 

 fecundity. The ewes, however, make good mothers and have a 

 fair flow of milk. 



The Southdown as a wool sheep occupies a subordinate place. 

 The fleece is short, averaging perhaps two and one half inches 

 long, and, although the finest of the native British breeds, weighs 

 light, an average yield for a flock being less than for any other 

 common breed. Wallace gives the weight of fleece of a ewe 

 from three to four pounds, and Shaw from five to seven. In 

 1891 General C. M. Clay, who bred Southdowns on a large 

 scale in Kentucky for over fifty consecutive years, wrote that he 

 had " raised wool from three and one half pounds to seven on an 

 average." While the fleece is usually very fine, its short length, 

 freedom from yolk, and small size of sheep combine to produce 

 a fleece not weighing much over five or six pounds. 



