SECRETARY'S REFORT. 109 



to the knee and the hock ; the wool short, close, curled and 

 fine." 



A uniform brown or gray color of the face and legs is made 

 an unvarying test by the best breeders of the purity of blood ; 

 a speckled or spotted face being unhesitatingly condemned as 

 indicating an admixture of foreign blood. 



COTS WOLDS. 



The Cotswolds, which next claim our attention, take their 

 name from a tract of low, chalky hills in the eastern division of 

 the county of Gloucester, England, where they have been bred 

 for a period of time running back beyond the reach of history. 

 The earliest English writers mention them as being fed in great 

 numbers " flocks of Cotteswolde sheepe, long-necked, and square 

 of bulk and bone, whose wool being most fair and soft, is held 

 in passing great esteeme amongst all nations." And Old 

 Stowc, in his Chronicles, states that in the year 1464, " King 

 Henry IVth granted license for certain Cotteswolde sheepe to 

 be transported into the country of Spaine, which have there 

 since mightily increased and multiplied to the Spanish profit, 

 as it is said." At the same time, he negatives the idea 

 advanced by some, that the ^lerinos of Spain took their origin 

 from them ; he says " true it is, that long ere this there were 

 sheepe in Spaine, as may appear by a patent of King Henry Hd 

 granting to the weavers of London, that if any cloth were 

 found to be made of Spanish wool, the mayor of London 

 should see it burnt." 



The Cotswold, soon after the New Leicester breed had been 

 perfected, began to be extensively crossed with it. The attempt 

 to improve by crossing Cotswold rams and Leicester ewes, failed 

 of success, but crossing the other way proved eminently suc- 

 cessful, and was pursued so extensively that there was hardly 

 a Cotswold flock left which was not more or less mixed with 

 the Leicester ; the effect was in other cases to diminisli tlie 

 bulk of body of the existing breed, and to reduce the quantity 

 of wool, and to communicate to the individuals a greater deli- 

 cacy of form ; about thirty-five years ago, however, the Cots- 

 wold breeders began to apprehend that their flocks were losing 

 too much in carcase and fleece, and becoming less fitted for the 

 climate of their native hills, and from that time they have pre- 



14* 



