62 THE DOMESTIC SHEEP. 



Downs wanted. The cross was repeated again and again, 

 the native prepotency of the old race striving bard for pre- 

 ponderance; but the better bred blood of the improving race 

 in time prevailed, and after many crosses with the South- 

 down the horns disappeared, the \vhite face was changed to a 

 black one, the frame, loose and angular, was brought by 

 degrees to a compact body, with a broad back, round bar- 

 rel, short legs, and superior quality of flesh, with a quick 

 feeding habit, and an ability to make the earliest growth 

 and the most salable weight, both of carcass and fleece, 

 for the food consumed. The ancient colossal head with its 

 bulging nose has been changed, for one of pleasing propor- 

 tions, yet strong and indicating a vigorous and hardy nerv- 

 ous constitution. The brain is capacious and the body is 

 evenly molded, deep and broad on the back, wide between 

 the forelegs, and full behind, a model carcass for the 

 but cher, and for the satisfaction of the breeder. 



Its hardiness is unquestionable. It is at home on the 

 Southern old field, on the best cultivated farms of the East 

 and West, and away on the Northwestern ranges it sustains 

 itself as a triumph of the breeders' art. 



Before the late war between the North and South a lot of 

 this breed had been imported into Virginia, and were flourish- 

 ing. The misfortunes of the strife tended to scatter the 

 flocks which became distributed over the Southern States. 

 Some black faces found in the N. Carolina mountains were 

 traced back to these Virginia flocks, and the evidences of 

 the value of this breed for crossing on the thin, ill-formed, 

 unprofitable, native sheep, are to be met with in the still 

 black faces of well farmed thrifty sheep scattered here and 

 there among the elevated Southern pastures. 



This breed is well adapted for improving the small 

 ligl.it bodied native ewes. It is commonly thought that to 

 use a large bodied ram on these small light ewes is bad 

 practice, for the alleged reason that the large size of the re- 

 sulting lamb will endanger the small ewes, and be bom 

 with difficulty. 



This, as is stated at more length in the chapter on breed- 

 ing, is not based on scientific principles, or on common sense 

 and experience. For the male merely contributes the vital 

 germ of life to its offspring, with it habit of growth and assim- 



