MODERN SHEEP I BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 25 



shire to be a direct descendant of the Morfe Common sheep in its 

 entire purity of blood, whose improvement in type has been brought 

 about wholly by selection and modern methods of feeding. Then, 

 again, there are those that contend that the Longmynds from 

 Shropshire and the Cannock Chase sheep of Staffordshire were the 

 original stock from which our now popular Shropshires hailed. 

 Shropshire and Staffordshire are adjoining counties. 



In 1858 Mr. Tanner made a survey of the county of Shrop- 



Shropshire Yearling Ewes. Property of Sir Richard Cooper, England . 



shire in the interest of agriculture, and became very much inter- 

 ested in its sheep. After a thorough investigation arid exhaustive 

 inquiry in regard to this breed of sheep, he sums up as follows: 

 "For my part I do not consider them a pure breed, but a cross-bred 

 animal from the original Longmynd or old Shropshire sheep/' 



Plymley, in a reveiw of the agriculture of Shropshire, pub- 

 lished in 1803, says : "There is a breed of sheep on the Longmynd, 

 with horns and black faces, that seem an indigenous sort; they 

 are nimble, hardy and weigh near ten pounds per quarter when 

 fatted. The fleeces upon the average may yield two and a half 

 pounds, of which one-half pound will be breechens or coarse wool, 

 and is sold distinct from the rest. The farmers of the hill country 

 seem "to think the greatest advantage they derive from the access 

 of foreign stock is from the cross of the Southdown with the Long- 

 mynd sheep ; the produce they state to be as hardy and to bite as 

 close as the Longmynd sheep; and the weight of the carcass is 

 increased." 



Beside those who contend that the modern Shropshire is a 



