DORSET DOWN SHEEP 19 



heavy land had been but recently taken in hand, and 

 during the previous two dripping seasons had defied 

 all attempts to bring the pest under. 



This was a country of good pastures ; the firm 

 calcareous soil and the sufficient rainfall result, where 

 the management is sound, in a close sward carrying 

 naturally an abundance of both white and red clover. 

 The sheep of the district and the lighter brashy 

 soils must be folded over to maintain their texture 

 and fertility are the Dorset Downs, a variant of the 

 Hampshires that is little known outside its own special 

 district. The origin of these sheep appears to be 

 identical with that of the Hampshires a cross of the 

 old big, white-faced local sheep with the Southdowns 

 but they diverged at an early period and are nowa- 

 days distinct enough. They are somewhat finer and 

 lighter in type than the Hampshires, browner in the 

 face, and slower in coming to maturity. Their breeders 

 claim that they yield a better quality of mutton than 

 the Hampshires, and that they will always command 

 higher prices when sold at equal weights in the west- 

 country markets, where the two breeds come into 

 competition. Of course their slower growth has to be 

 set off against this ; the Hampshires are above all 

 things rapid mutton-making machines, and which 

 system is the more profitable, the forcing policy 

 adopted with the Hampshires or the longer and 

 cheaper feeding of the Dorset Downs, is just one of 

 those questions which a local experimental farm might 

 take up. The economics of our various methods of 

 farming is the side of British agriculture about which 

 we are most ignorant, and though it is easy to object 

 that any experiment on the subject is at the mercy 

 of the season or the turn of the market, that only 

 means the experiment must be carried out more 



