22 MODERN SHEEP! BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



Notwithstanding this accusation, it was admitted by all that Mr. 

 Adney's judgment was unsurpassed, if indeed equalled. 



Considerable difference of opinion exists as to whether the 

 Shropshire is an original breed in a pure state from the Morfe 

 Common foundation, or whether blood of the established breeds, 

 such as the Southdown, Leicester and Cotswold, was not intro- 

 duced in its evolution ; still there is not much doubt but that many 

 different methods were employed with a view to improving the 

 original stock. This is evident by a marked lack of uniformity in 

 the type of our Shropshires a few years ago. Evidence weighs in 

 favor of the theory that the Shropshire is the product of both 

 cross-breeding and selection, rather than selection only, of the 

 best from the original Morfe Common stock. This is largely proved 

 by addresses and essays given before farmers' clubs, etc., by those 

 who did considerable toward evolving the modern Shropshire. 



Professor Wilson, in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England, expresses his opinion that the original stock 

 from which the Shropshire sprung was the Morfe Common sheep, 

 but as the country advanced, and the breed became more valuable 

 for its mutton and wool, there was a dash of blood introduced in 

 some instances from the Leicesters and Cotswolds, and in others 

 from the Southdown. The infusion of the Leicester and Cotswold 

 blood was, it is asserted, introduced with a view to giving size to 

 the carcass, while that of the Southdown was used to remove the 

 horns and to give more quality and encourage early maturity. 



Spooner, one of the best informed writers, perhaps, on matters 

 pertaining to the evolution of the Shropshire, tells us in one of his 

 essays on cross-breeding that the Shropshire is undoubtedly a 

 cross-bred, which affords a striking example of the perfection that 

 can be derived from a judicious mating of various breeds, and that 

 even those flockmasters who considered themselves to be the holders 

 of the original breed could give no proof of purity of blood for any 

 length of time antedating any particular time. In this particular 

 essay he quotes Mr. Samuel Meire, of Berrington, Shropshire, a 

 prominent breeder, who observed at a farmers' club meeting, in 

 1858, that it was not intended to deny that the Shropshire was a 

 cross-bred sheep and that the Southdown had been used with a view 

 of getting rid of those useless incumbrances horns. Mr. Meire 

 is exceedingly frank in his statements regarding the evolution of 

 this wonderful breed of sheep. While he admitted that the Morfe 

 Common sheep was well adapted for the Morfe common or downs, 

 he was not willing to concede that they were the sheep for enclosed 

 lands, for the reason that a more docile sheep could be more easily 

 handled and would give better results. Today this does not apply, 

 for a more docile sheep than the Shropshire is hard to find. We 

 are compelled to take Mr. Meire's opinion as being very valuable, 

 as he was not a theorist but a man of considerable experience 



