398 



SHEEP 



mutton form, with a strong breadth of back and excellent leg 

 of mutton. The skin of the Oxford Down, like the Shropshire, 

 frequently lacks color, being bluish tinted and lacking the pink 

 color desirable. Perhaps no breed of sheep has shown greater 

 improvement in recent years than this. 



The size of the Oxford Down places it in the first rank. Rams 

 have been shown that weighed above 400 pounds, and 275 pounds 

 for the mature male is a weight easily attained. Mature ewes 

 should weigh close to 200 pounds or more. In a statement in 

 the Breeders Gazette in 1889, on Oxford weights, Mr. George 

 McKerrow, a prominent breeder, gave the following figures : 

 2 rams, two years old, averaged 303 \ pounds each; 4 yearling 

 rams averaged 203 pounds each ; 4 aged ewes averaged 2 1 5 

 pounds each ; 5 yearling ewes 1 J J pounds ; and 8 March and 

 April lambs, about September 1, averaged 118 pounds each. 

 These were not fat sheep. In the American Sheep Breeder an 

 Ohio man writes that in September, 1890, his ewes from one to 

 five years old averaged 193 pounds and his rams 325 pounds. 



The Oxford Down as a feeder ranks deservedly high. Being 

 quiet of temperament and of considerable size, the breed easily 

 thrives under conditions of restraint and fattens rapidly to large 

 size. In the Iowa fattening wether lamb test the Oxfords in 

 one trial gained a daily average of .52 pound, and in a second 

 trial .40 pound, requiring in the first trial 740 and in the sec- 

 ond 1 03 1 pounds of dry matter for each 100 pounds of gain. 

 The Oxford carcasses did not dress out as well as most of the 

 other breeds, those in the first trial rating 55.2 per cent and in 

 the second 50.08, and bringing $4.50 per hundredweight live 

 weight in the first trial and $5.40 in the second. The Iowa 

 records give the Oxford about an average rating in feeding results. 

 In the Smithfield Club Show in 1889 the Oxford wethers weighed 

 to show a daily gain of 9.3 ounces, and the wether lambs 10 ounces 

 per day, surpassing both Southdown and Shropshire. The gen- 

 eral evidence shows the Oxford to be a feeder that will do well for 

 considerable periods, and such as the market readily purchases. 



The Oxford Down cross-bred or grade has long met with favor, 

 but of late has rapidly grown in the esteem of American sheep 

 men. From the first this merit of the Oxford was extolled ; it 



