138 THE SHEPHERD'S MANUAL. 



cester, and the strength and weight of the Cotswold. It is In 

 great request for the manufacture of fine dress braids, aud is 

 sought by the manufacturers chiefly in Canada, where the cross 

 is most common. The cross is hardier than the pure Leicester, 

 and yields a fine mutton, but when bred together, the produce 

 is very apt to deteriorate. The portrait given on page 139 repre- 

 sents a ewe bred by Mr. Burdett Loomis, of Windsor Locks, Ct, 

 and very much resembles one bred by the author. 



COTSWOLD-SOUTHDOWN. The Southdown is par excellence the 

 mutton sheep of the world. But mutton alone is not profitable ; 

 there must be a fleece as well as the carcass, to repay the cost of 

 feed and care. The Cotswold is a profitable wool bearer, but its 

 mutton is not so desirable as that of the Southdown, nor is its 

 fleece adapted to a wide variety of uses in manufacture. If the 

 excellencies of the two breeds could be combined, and better mut- 

 ton than the Cotswold, and a better fleece than either be produced 

 by amalgamating the different bloods, a desirable result would be 

 reached. In this lies the whole secret of the desire to produce 

 cross breeds. In the effort to reach this result, all the cross breeds 

 have been obtained. It cannot be supposed that sheep breeders 

 have yet reached the limit of profitable crossing. The constant 

 change in the public taste for cloths, dress goods, and fabrics, and 

 the new-found needs and capabilities of various and peculiar local- 

 ities, will ever operate to cause new crosses and combinations of 

 breeds, and to furnish opportunities for the skillful exercise of the 

 breeder's art. The Cotswold and the Southdown bloods flow 

 together in more than one firmly established cross breed, but with 

 other admixtures. Efforts to combine these two breeds alone, and 

 to produce a new race which shall be more profitable than either 

 alone, have been made of late both in this country and in Germa- 

 ny. In the latter country the Moravian Sugar Factory Company, 

 previously mentioned in this chapter, have formed a flock of 

 cross-bred sheep which successfully answers the purpose of pro- 

 ducing mutton and a wool which, for certain manufactures, is 

 desirable and profitable. 



In the United States, Mr. William Crozier, of Beacon Farm, 

 near Northport, Long Island, has commenced to breed a flock 

 and found a race which he calls the Beacon-downs. His suc- 

 cess so far has been encouraging. A description of this sheep 

 with the portrait, from which it is here reproduced, appeared in 

 the American Agriculturist of June, 1875. The flock was com- 

 menced six years ago by crossing Southdown ewes with a Cots- 

 tf old ram, and the first cvoss. being very satisfactory, was interbred. 



