124 BRITISH BREEDS. 



Leicesters and the Lincolns for the point of supremacy. 

 The contmuance, however, of the contest, and the doubt 

 which even now exists in the minds of some, with regard to 

 the relative value of the respective breeds, show that the old 

 Lincolnshire should not have been spoken of in a disparag- 

 ing way. Before they were allied to the Leicesters, and 

 ill-formed and rough as they were, they had attained no small 

 degree of excellence both in the carcase and the wool. 



" At length a union was established between them. The 

 Lincoln ewe was put to the Leicester ram, and the progeny 

 certainly displayed, and to a very great and profitable extent, 

 the excellencies of the male parent ; the wether attained its 

 maturity a full year sooner than it was accustomed to do, and 

 with less comparative expense of food even in that time ; 

 and when the ewe was drafted, she too was sooner ready to 

 be sent to the market, and weighed considerably more than 

 she was wont to do, and was in higher repute and more rea- 

 dily sold. 



" Mr. Clark, of Can wick, in 1827, exhibited two wether 

 sheep in Lincoln Market, the fleeces of which had yielded, 

 each, 12 lbs. of wool. They were slaughtered — the carcase 

 of the larger one weighed 261 lbs.: the fore-quarters were, 

 each of them, 73 lbs., and the hind quarters 57 1-2 lbs. ! On 

 the top of the rib the solid fat measured nine inches in 

 thickness ! 



" The average weight of the fleeces of the Lincoln breed 

 is from 8 to 10 lbs. It has since become finer and the co- 

 lor is improved, but it is shorter, a material objection in some 

 fabrics, and it has lost some of that toughness which is an 

 indispensable quality in the best combing wool. The light 

 and tender kind of wool is valuable in the manufacture of 

 the rougher woollen articles, but it is not suited to the finer 

 worsted fabrics. 



" The fibre is the 480th part of an inch in diameter, and 

 the serrations 1280 in the space of an inch." 



BAMPTON SHEEP. 



This breed is found extensively spread over the north of 

 Devonshire, and also in Somersetshire. The name is derived 

 from a village on the borders of the two counties, where they 

 are supposed to have been first bred. 



In the Annals of Agriculture, a writer thus describes them : 

 " They are the best breed in Devonshire, and have existed 



