DORSET DOWN SHEEP 31 



and very clean ; in the seeds the rye grass was most 

 prominent, the clover being but patchy. The soil 

 seemed to lack potash and was said to respond to 

 manures containing that fertilizer. Sainfoin we were 

 told was rarely successful, in spite of the warm chalky 

 nature of the land, but trifolium was grown very 

 successfully as a catch-crop after the wheat, and this 

 again showed that the soil is hardly of the normal 

 chalk type. The main part of the farm derived its 

 fertility chiefly from the artificial food given to the 

 sheep when folding, bone manures were used for the 

 roots, but only the fields near the homestead got any 

 farmyard manure. 



At the lower end of the farm where there were good 

 meadows and water, a herd of dairy cattle was kept, 

 but the mainstay of the business was the fine flock of 

 pedigree Dorset Downs. Looking at the ewes we 

 were again impressed by the handsomeness and 

 general look of quality about the sheep of this com- 

 paratively recently recognized breed ; the only question 

 is whether their quality had not been purchased too 

 dearly by their comparatively slow growth. Lambing 

 takes place early in the year in a fold-yard built up 

 on the arable land, and the ewe lambs do not come 

 into the flock until their second season ; the wether 

 lambs are sold in the September of their second 

 season as forward stores, coming off the fold where 

 they have also been receiving a little cake and dry 

 food. They fetch good prices, but the annual output 

 of the flock must be lower than that of other Down 

 breeds, a good deal lower than that of a Dorset Horn 

 flock, and as the sheep are throughout their life con- 

 suming crops on the arable land and receiving some 

 dried food in addition, they are not running so cheaply 

 as other slowly maturing sheep that live largely on the 



