THE SHROPSHIRE 



391 



Cross-bred or grade Shropshires are to-day one of the most 

 common types of mutton sheep found on the market. Shrop- 

 shire rams used on native ewes furnish lambs of a much-desired 

 class, fattening easily, not too large, and profitable killers. In the 

 Mississippi Valley states Shropshire grades are the common sheep 

 outside of Merino communities. A Shropshire ram-Merino ewe 

 cross is also a very beneficial one from a mutton point of view. 

 Used on the long-wool grade ewes, a smaller, better mutton 

 sheep results, with a more profitable fleece. Alex. Bruce, chief 

 live-stock inspector for New South Wales, in 1894 wrote, "For 

 the production of prime fat lambs there is no better ram (if 



Fig. 178. The first-prize pen of Shropshire yearling ewes at the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society of England Show, 1904. Bred and exhibited by Sir 

 R. P. Cooper, Bart., Shenstone, England. Photograph from William 

 Cooper & Nephews, Berkhamsted, England 



there be as good) than the Shropshire, and the result is equally 

 favorable where that ram is put to cross-bred ewes." 



The fecundity of Shropshire sheep is notable. The ewes of 

 this breed have long been noted for the number of lambs they 

 will produce. A ewe owned by a Mr. Pochin at Leicester, Eng- 

 land, dropped five lambs in 1882, four in 1883, and four in 

 1884. A writer in the English Agricultural Gazette in 1879 

 reports that in 1877 he had 125 ewes suckle 194 lambs, in 1878 

 he had 120 suckle 176, and in 1879 he had 124 suckle 191. 

 Mr. Alfred Mansell, secretary of the English Shropshire Society, 

 states that 150 to 175 lambs per 100 is the usual average, that 

 1 1,666 ewes in 1896 reared 168 lambs per 100 ewes. In a study 

 of 23,037 Shropshires recorded in the American Shropshire 



