AGRICULTURE 



and that in 1791 some horned flocks were left in West Sussex ; but he leads 

 us to believe that in about twenty years the Southdown sheep had spread 

 generally over West Sussex, whilst in East Sussex Southdown sheep were the 

 breed par excellence of the country. He specially mentions Mr. Pinnix's 

 flock at Up Marden in West Sussex as being a good one, and as having been 

 started in 1788, and notes that it was reared in the centre of the Dorsetshire 

 breed. 



Reading the account of John Ellman's flock, and the way he farmed it, 

 one will see but very little difference in the custom followed at the present 

 time. He had the same flock, of the same ages, and the same relative 

 number of stock ewe lambs ; the cultivation pursued was very much the 

 same, although perhaps more wheat was grown then than now, prices being 

 better. There were, however, some important differences. A certain 

 number of wether lambs were kept, and these and the ewe lambs were put 

 out to keep in the winter, two or three shillings a head being paid for their 

 keep. These wether lambs became in turn ' stock wethers,' and were kept 

 on the farm until two years old, and then fattened ; indeed some seem to have 

 been kept till three years old. The general rule on the hill farm now is to 

 keep the stock ewe lambs on the farm all the year round, and to sell all the 

 wether lambs ; thus two- or three- year-old mutton is a thing of the past, 

 unless under exceptional circumstances. Another practice of John Ellman's, 

 now very rarely followed, was the shearing of the lambs. As the wool 

 shorn was only \ Ib. or under per lamb, and only realized about 6d. per lb., 

 one cannot think the game was worth the candle. Ellman's idea, however, 

 was that it improved the clip of wool in succeeding years. Ellman, whose 

 name was, of course, well known, had a ready sale for his draft ewes to other 

 breeders, and also bred a considerable number of rams. It may be noted that 

 he did not believe in using ram lambs with the flocks, and would not do so 

 with his own flock. 



The engravings of Ellman's ewe and ram in Arthur Young's book show 

 rather a different character from those of the present day. The ewe has a 

 very small and short head, the body short in front as compared with the hind 

 quarters ; and the ram particularly has, as we should say now, not masculine 

 enough head, with too much daylight under the body, whilst both have 

 very small ears, and an absence of wool on the poll cheeks and lower part of 

 the legs. 



The fleeces from Ellman's flock averaged about 2j lb., whilst Pinnix's 

 flock averaged 3 Jib. : this is considerably less than the weight of the present 

 day, although something like the relative proportions of East and West 

 Sussex, the weight for ewe and ewe teg fleeces being now, perhaps, 4lb. in 

 East Sussex and 4! lb. or 5 lb. in West Sussex. 



The writer of this article has in his possession the flock-book kept by 

 his great-grandfather, who farmed a very large acreage between Brighton and 

 Lewes at the same time that John Ellman held the Glynde Farm. The 

 flock-book runs from 1772 to 1805. This flock would probably be typical 

 of the general Down flock. This breeder kept a large flock, the management 

 of which was practically identical with Ellman's as regards the keeping of a 

 flock of ewes, ewe and wether lambs, and stock wethers. From this book 

 one finds that the clip of wool was about the same, running from an average of 



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