HAMPSHIRE DOWN SHEEP 13 



Of our host's flock this is hardly the place to write ; 

 its fame has gone forth into all lands, but its excellences 

 require an expert's appreciation. Folded on the vetches 

 were the ewes, which bear three crops, and are then 

 sold to yield yet one more lamb before they are fattened 

 off. There also were the ram lambs which had been 

 sold at as high an average price as 2$, when the 

 ordinary sheep raiser was obtaining little more than 

 the same number of shillings, and a few of the stud 

 rams, including one old warrior then long past his 

 prime, but with the pedigree of a crowned head, en- 

 nobled also in Chinese fashion by the deeds of his 

 descendants. With these rams of all ages as text our 

 host could expound to us the slight changes, one can 

 only call them of fashion, which are set up from time 

 to time in the breeder's ideal, in this particular case 

 in response to the Argentine demand. The closing of 

 the Argentine ports to English live stock, due to the 

 Yorkshire outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 1910, 

 had hit our host and similar breeders hard ; prize- 

 winners at the summer shows which had been sold for 

 export were thrown back on their raisers' hands, and 

 as the local demand could not expand they were not 

 likely to realize more than a fifth of their former price. 

 Facts like these are the arguments for the continuation 

 of our policy of a closed door against foreign live 

 stock ; everything must be done to minimize the risks 

 of disease in our flocks and herds, for Great Britain is 

 still the fountain of pure blood for all the stock-raising 

 countries of the world. We were to hear one or 

 other side of the case not infrequently in our travels, 

 but without doubt the breeder's views are those which 

 commend themselves to the vast majority of British 

 farmers, even against their own personal interests. 

 To be a successful raiser of pedigree stock demands 



