MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 95 



The Border Leicester and native Cheviot ewes give an offspring 

 that finds much favor with butchers. The Border Leicester is said 

 to fatten easily with little other food than ordinary pastures, al- 

 though their breeders treat them to a little more generous fare. It 

 has outrivalled the original Dishley Leicester and is considered the 

 mainstay of Border counties' farming. Besides being used as a 

 cross on Cheviots, it is also used on some of the smaller mountain 

 breeds. In British showyards the Border Leicester and the old 

 Leicester have classes and are about even as to entries at most of 

 the shows. At the famous Kelso sales between two and three 

 thousand rams are disposed of every year. The Culleys' retiring in 

 1806 brought about a dispersion of their flocks, and from it sprung 

 the now famous Lord Polworth Mertoun flock. Mr. David Archi- 

 bald, an enterprising New Zealander, who has given a great deal of 

 time to tracing the history of the Border Leicester, contends that 

 the Mertoun flock was contemporary with the Dishley flock. Rams 

 hired from the Culleys realized good figures, since "they made as 

 much in some instances as 100 guineas for their use for a single 

 season. In 1888 Lord Polworth sold twenty-eight rams at an 

 average of 36 9s 3d, one going at 165 guineas. The Canadian 

 Leicester flocks are considered to contain a good percentage of 

 Border Leicester blood. 



THE ROMNEY MARSH. 



Mr. Arthur Finn, a well known English Romney Marsh 

 breeder, gave an interesting lecture before the Rye Farmers' Club 

 on the breed, in which he said : "It is difficult to trace records of 

 breeds, but I feel safe in saying that Romney Marsh sheep are 

 second to none in the possession of a long history. It has been 

 said that possibly they were introduced from the Low Countries, 

 and Mr. Charles Whitehead has written, in the Agricultural So- 

 ciety's Journal thus: It has been suggested that the aboriginal 

 Kent sheep posed as the model of the cube upon four legs repre- 

 senting sheep in toy "Noah's Arks," and as toy manufacturing 

 had long been carried on in the Low Countries, perhaps the breed, 

 like hops and other good things, was fetched from Flanders.' 

 This is a slender foundation to go upon, but certainly Dutch 

 sheep and Romney Marsh sheep are very much alike. The breed 

 is now acclimated in this district, but I do not think it originated 

 here. The Marsh is of a comparatively recent formation, and in 

 its earlier state must have been quite unfitted for sheep grazing. 

 The coast dwellers lived principally by fishing, and the first graz- 

 ing of the newly reclaimed land appears from records to have been 

 chiefly with herds of swine, and later on with cattle. 



"The earliest recorded flock I have met with is one estab- 

 lished in my own native town of Lydd, where, in 1572, the bailiff, 



