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Oxford Downs are sent to market at foui'tecn months old, 

 •weighing 80 pounds, and shearing from 7 to 10 pounds of 

 wool. Mr. Grennell in his Report on Sheep Husbandry to 

 the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, gives the weight of 

 Mr. Fay's Oxford Down ewes from 150 to 180 pounds, of a 

 ram in the same flock, 360 pounds, and of lambs five or six 

 months old, 100 pounds. 



Shropshire Downs are said to dress from 25 to 30 pounds 

 per quarter, and to shear from 5^ to 7 pounds of wool. It is 

 said of them that "for early maturity, and weight of carcass 

 and wool, with the least amount of food, I believe they are not 

 to be surpassed by any breed, especially if their non-liability to 

 disease, and their fecundity, be duly taken into consideration." 



Cotswolds, at two years old, are made to weigh 35 pounds 

 to the quarter ; and it is said that a ram of this breed has 

 sheared 17 pounds of " good coarse wool." 



South Down wethers, at two years old, weigh from 85 to 

 125 pounds, making "more internal fat than others, and on 

 this account being favorites with the butcher." The average 

 weight of their fleeces in England is 3 pounds — in this country 

 it is said to be 4 pounds. 



Leicesters, at two years old, weigh from 25 to 35 pounds to 

 the quarter, having such a preponderance of external fat over 

 internal, that while the London butchers show the inside of the 

 Down sheep, they hang the Leicesters with the back out. 

 The Leicesters yield about 7 pounds of somewhat inferior wool. 



There seem to be no data given for obtaining the compara- 

 tive cost of the wool and mutton of these various breeds ; and 

 considering the difierences in the cost of food, of pasturage, 

 &c., which exist in various localities, perhaps any exact calcu- 

 lation is impossible. We can only say of them, that they form 

 a part of agricultural industry, in that countiy where the most 

 carefal experiments have been made in the art of farming, and 

 where the business of farming is brought within profitable rules. 



There is, however, a kind of sheep husbandry practiced in 

 less cultivated regions, which is worthy of notice. While the 

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