SUPPLEMENT. 773 



SOUTHDOWNS AHD CAMBRIDGESHIRE FARMING. 



[Inclosure No. 1 in Consul- General Merritt's Report Reprinted from the Field, August 18, 1883.] 



The history of the Babraham flock is the history of modern Southdowns; and the 

 Babraham liock originated in this way. The lute Mr. Jonas Webb's father was a lead- 

 ing farmer of his day, and when his sons were grown to manhood, and he was getting 

 into years, he spoke to them to this effect: " There ought to be some experiments tried 

 with different kinds of sheep. But that is young men's business. lam too old to 

 begin now; you make the experiments." His son Jonas entered fully into the spirit of 

 the suggestion, and, having hired the Babraham farm, he subsequently began such test 

 trials as suggested themselves to him. Leicesters were the fashionable breed of that 

 day, as was then shown by this breed being first on the list of the classes shown at the 

 Smithlield Club Christmas shows. They still, it need hardly be said, hold this " pride 

 of place " at the London shows to this day. And not only so; for when the Royal Ag- 

 ricultural Society of England was inaugurated at Oxford in 1839, the Leicesters stood 

 first in the list of classes for sheep. They were given the same position at the recent 

 York show. 



The young Jonas Webb, of some sixty years ago, displayed at starting the sagacity 

 and judgment which ultimately led to his being the greatest agriculturist of his age. 

 He experimented with Leicesters, Southdowns, and other breeds of sheep, side by side, 

 with a view to ascertain which would produce the most meat and money value per acre. 

 If that was not a stroke of genius at that time, It was the correct way of looking at the 

 question from a practical point of view. Young Jonas Webb evidently clearly under- 

 stood then, as it is acknowledged by every practical man now, that it does not follow 

 that the greater individual weights at a given age of such large sheep as Lincolns and 

 Cotswolds yield the most profit on the food a farmer may have at his disposal. Nothing 

 will grow out of nothing; and a large, coarse, bony-framed sheep naturally requires more 

 food than smaller and more compact ones. It was this consideration that made the test 

 ; vd to a question of so much mutton and money per acre. This was before the days 

 of fancy prices, as now given by rich amateur breeders at home and by foreign millionaires. 

 The question then was closely limited to the value of mutton and wool, according to 

 the food consumed, as between the breeder cr producer and the butcher or consumer. 

 It is true there were some high figures given for '' New Leicesters " of Bakewell about 

 this time; one Leicester ram was let for a thousand guineas to three owners of Leicester 

 ewes. But young Jonas Webb clearly did not heed this and lesser tempting prospects. 

 After the several experiments ho instituted and carried out he settled down to the 

 Southdown breed. 



Having come to this decision, young Jonas Webb then brought his great natural judg- 

 ment to bear iu improving his flock. The result of his judgment and skill in matching 

 his males and females culminated at the Royal Society's show at Canterbury in 1860, 

 when he took easily the six prizes offered for rams, first, second, and third for shear- 

 ling, and first, second, and third in the class for older sheep. A well-executed oil 

 painting of thcso sheep, with John Day (now of Merton) among them, crook in hand, 

 harus in the dining-room of Jonas Webb's eldest son, Mr. Henry Webb, of Streetly 

 Hall, near Linton. The artist was the well-known animal painter of his day, Mr. W. 

 II. Davis. Mr. Jonas Webb had resolved not to exhibit his sheep after the Canterbury 

 meeting, and his success there, as above mentioned, was a well-merited finale to a long 

 career of successful breeding and exhibiting. 



Not so, however, as an agriculturist. For some years previously Mr. Webb had started 

 a herd of Shorthorns, and at the Battersea show of the Royal in 1862 he sent First Fruits, 

 a white bull calf, which was in the most blooming condition that I had ever seen an an- 

 imal up to that time. For First Fruits (appropriately named, as this was the first Short- 

 horn he exhibited) he easily won the first prize. Then in the same yearcame his lamented 

 death, at the age of sixty-six. But the honors he had won as an agriculturist did not end 

 with his decease, for he had so gained the confidence and respect of all the leading agri- 

 culturists of the kingdom th'at a statue to his memory was subscribed for, and cast. This 

 was the first honor of its kind that was ever conferred for purely agricultural eminence. 

 This statue now stands in the market hall of his native market-town of Cambridge, six 

 miles from Babrahain. 



