MODERN SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 39 



almost unlimited sale for a proper class of either of these two breeds 

 among western sheep owners/' 



Prof. John Wrightson, president of the Downton College of 

 Agriculture, and professor of agriculture in the Royal College of 

 Science, London, England, must be rated among the greatest living 

 scientific and practical authorities on the breed, and to give his 

 tribute to this breed as it appears in his "Sheep; Breeds and 

 Management" (Vinton & Co., Ltd., London), is perhaps the me- 

 dium through which the writer may do the greatest good to the 

 breed, its breeders and improvers. He says: 



"The improved Hampshire Down sheep is one of the more 

 recent additions to the agricultural wealth of this country. It was 

 only at 'the first meeting of the Royal at Salisbury in 1857 that 

 Hampshire sheep were awarded classes to themselves, and some of 

 the earliest improvers of the race are still living notably, Mr. 

 James Rawlence, Mr. William King of Old Hayward, now ninety 

 years of age, and his brother, Mr. Stephen King. No breed has 

 made more rapid progress, either in absolute improvement or in 

 the wide appreciation in which it is now held, than this. I trust 

 my readers will excuse me if I dwell on this particular race of sheep 

 at somewhat great length. I do this from no wish to give it spe- 

 cial prominence, but because I have examined into its early history, 

 and find that there is a good deal of material which has not yet 

 seen the light, David Low lived before the birth of the Hampshire 

 Down, and William Youatt wrote before the breed had been con- 

 stituted. The late Professor Wilson wrote on sheep before the 

 Hampshire Downs became prominent, and Mr. Rowlandson only 

 gives them a brief notice. I therefore feel it not only due to the 

 early improvers of the breed, but to the breed itself, to place, on 

 record a detailed account of its history, and trust that some of the 

 information I am able to give will prove interesting to breeders. 



"The old Hampshire and Wiltshire rams have long been merged 

 in the present improved breed. The Hampshires originally were 

 horned, tall, light, and narrow in the carcass, and usually with 

 white faces and shanks. The Wiltshire sheep were originally known 

 as 'crooks/ so called from the shape of the horn, which turned 

 back behind the ear, and bent over the cheeks. They were the 

 largest breed of fine wooled sheep in this country. A Wiltshire 

 lamb which weighed 24 pounds per quarter, and contained 14 

 pounds of loose fat is described in the Commercial and Agricul- 

 tural Magazine for April, 1800. 'These sheep/ says Youatt, 'not 

 only prevailed upon the Wiltshire Downs, and were much, and 

 deservedly, valued there, but were found in considerable numbers 

 in North Devon, Somersetshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. 

 They were a peculiar breed, differing in the shape of horn, and in 

 other points, from the sheep of any other part of the kingdom, and 

 were probably indigenous to the Wiltshire Downs. If they were 



