MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 59 



soon rose to three guineas each, and eventually to four guineas, at 

 which he contracted for the sale of the whole to one person, George 

 Talbot, Esq., of Gloucestershire, for four years/' 



The Southdown is unqestionably a fashionable sheep. When 

 George III. of England took it up, plenty of his nobility followed 

 suit, and today many of the leading flocks of this breed belong to 

 such important personages as King Edward VII., Duke of Rich- 

 mond and Gordon, Lord Walsingham, etc. 



The Southdown was introduced into this country in the early 

 eighties. Dr. Rose, of Seneca County, N. Y., imported a flock 

 in 1803, and this was followed in 1823 by an important importation 

 by C. N. Benant, also of New York. In 1834, Mr. Rotch of New 

 York imported six ewes and a ram from the Ellman flock. In 1848 

 J. C. Taylor, of New Jersey, commenced breeding Southdowns, and 

 established a flock which descended from the famous Webb flock. 

 In 1861 Hon. John Wentworth, of Chicago, imported Southdowns. 

 On May 1, 1882, the American Southdown Breeders' Association 

 sprang into existence. The Southdown was introduced into Ohio 

 in 1834 by Isaac Mainer. 



Gen.' Cassius M. Clay, of White Hall, Ky., a hero of the Mex- 

 ican war, was among the pioneers of Southdown breeders. 



For neatness of carcass and quality of mutton, the Southdown 

 still leads and is not likely to be soon surpassed. The comparatively 

 light fleece of the Southdown mitigates against its holding the 

 warm place in the American sheep breeder's heart it would were it 

 a heavier shearer. While some complain of its size, it is a much 

 bigger sheep when put on the scales than it looks, and a South- 

 down lamb pretty well holds its own in weight with other breeds. 



The Southdown is a prolific breed as will be seen when men- 

 tion is made of a ewe in the late Colonel McCalmont's Cheveley 

 Park flock which provided two lambs in 1895, two in 1896, two in 

 1897, three in 1898, two in 1899, two in 1900, three in 1901, two 

 in 1902, two in 1903, and one in 1904, viz., twenty-one lambs in 

 ten years, in addition to the lambs she raised during the time she 

 was in the flock of a farmer. Two of her daughters and several 

 of her granddaughters and great granddaughters remain in the 

 Cheveley flock, and are greatly valued for their constitution and 

 hardiness ; they are always in good condition and almost invariably 

 produce twins. 



The following is from a late bulletin of the Wisconsin Experi- 

 ment Station which speaks well for the breed : "Southdown ewes 

 dropped 78 per cent, of strong lambs while the Shropshire ewes 

 dropped 59 per cent., the Shropshire-Merinos 73.4 per cent., and 

 the Dorset-Shrops 60 per cent, of strong lambs, the latter being but 

 a trifle ahead of the Shropshires." 



Some interesting little stories are told of the Southdown, 

 among them being the following from an American recently visiting 



