76 MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



points it has. * * * Horn sheep are well adapted to farms 

 that have some good watered meadows, as they possess good qual- 

 ity and fatten readily, and their lambs come to early maturity for 

 market. * * * Horn sheep are dropped about Christmas. As 

 most of these hereabout are fattened, they get cake as soon as they 

 will eat, and all they can be made to consume, the object being to 

 get them off as soon as possible, which in a fair season would be 

 about April 1. Since meat has been so dear many farmers fatten 

 the offgoing ewes as well as the lambs, and they also are allowed 

 whatever cake in roason they will eat, the same object being de- 

 sired as with the lambs." 



Professor Buckman, whose farm was on the border line of 

 Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, said of the soil and the Dorset in 

 that region : "The soil of this part of Dorset is mostly an inferior 

 oolite, the lighter on the inferior sands. Hampshires and Dorset- 

 Horns prevail, but Southdowns are not unusual, and all do well. 

 Both Hampshires and Dorsets are very early and usually prolific. 

 I fancy that for the past few years Dorsets have paid best, but 

 Down mutton is to be preferred." 



It will be seen that in some sections of England the Dorset 

 has done its share in supplanting other breeds. For instance, Mr. 

 J. Horner of Martinstown wrote in the 70 ? s: "A very few real 

 Southdown flocks are left in this district, the improved Hampshire 

 or Dorset-Horns being so much better suited to its requirements.'' 



Mr. Ruegg, in his prize essay, published in the Eoyal Agri- 

 cultural Society's Journal in 1855, said: "Mr. Pope, having a 

 flock of pure Downs at Toller, sent some of them to his rich land 

 at Mapperton, a Horn country, and found out that the poorest 

 Downs on the thin land at Toller did better than the best Downs 

 on the rich land at Mapperton." 



It is the contention of some breeders even today that little 

 improvement has been made in the Dorset in recent years, or in 

 fact in a good many years. Back in the 70's one prominent Eng- 

 lish Dorset breeder wrote : "I have known many of the best Horn 

 flocks for more than forty years, and I am not at all prepared to 

 say they are better now, if indeed so good, as they were then. I 

 admit they are more uniform in size, shape of horn, and general 

 character, but certainly not so large or hardy in constitution. 

 During that time most of the flocks have been crossed by the Som- 

 erset polled sheep (a breed now almost extinct) or by Leicesters, 

 and in some cases by Devons, which has made them more round 

 and perfect in symmetry. I have myself seen within the last seven 

 years Leicester rams with pome of the best Horn flocks in the west 

 of England, though I hardly think the owners would like to admit 

 the fact." 



There are two Dorset breeders' associations in this country, 

 viz: the American Dorset-Horn Breeders' Association and the 



