1 1 8 A Walk from 



old-fashioned farmers of New England, of forty years 

 ago, think of paying nearly a thousand dollars for the 

 rent of a ram for a single year, or even one tenth of 

 that sum ? But this rentage was not a fancy price. 

 The farmer who paid it got back his money many 

 times over in the course of a few years. From this 

 infusion of the Babraham blood into his flock, he 

 realised an augmented production of mutton and wool 

 annually per acre which he could count definitely by 

 pounds. The verdict of his balance-sheet proved the 

 profit of the investment. It would be impossible to 

 measure the benefit which the whole world reaped 

 from Mr. Webb's labors in this department of useful- 

 ness. An eminent authority has stated that "it would 

 be difficult, if not impossible, to find a Southdown 

 flock of any reputation, in any country in the world, 

 not closely allied with the Babraham flock." It is a 

 fact that illustrates the skill and care, as well as 

 demonstrates the value of his system of improvement, 

 that, after thirty-seven years as a breeder, the tribes 

 he founded maintained to the last those distinguishing 

 qualities which gave them such pre-eminence over all 

 other sheep bearing the general name of the Sussex 

 race. So valuable and distinctive were those qualities 

 regarded by the best judges in the country, that 

 the twelfth ram-letting, which took place at the time 



