PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 345 



by Jonas "Webb, who has made the Southdown perfect. The 

 peculiarity of this sheep is its superior quality of mutton and 

 wool. Average weight, from thirteen to fifteen months, is 12G 

 pounds ; weight of fleece, six pounds. The ewes are capital 

 breeders, and generally produce one-third twins. They are best 

 adapted to elevated situations and bare pasturage. Among the 

 nobility and fancy farmers they are regarded as the elite of 



2. Hampshire Downs. — This valuable sheep has been estab- 

 lished from various crosses, commencing with the century. They 

 present as great an uniformity in wool, color, and general appear- 

 ance, as their smaller but handsomer cousins, the Southdowns. 

 They have risen into favor rapidly. They are very hardy, and 

 of good constitutions, and good wool-bearers, the average fleece 

 being six to seven pounds ; of early maturity, and have plenty 

 of lean as well as fat meat, and will graze to almost any weight 

 you may choose to make them. The ewes are good breeders and 

 Bucklers. 



3. Leicesters. — These originated with Bakewell, To this breed 

 all other long-wooled sheep are indebted for their improved 

 shape and greater disposition to fatten. The chief characteristics 

 are, great aptitude to fatten with a comparatively small con- 

 sumption of food, and early maturity ; fleece, seven pounds ; car- 

 cass, at fourteen or fifteen months, 140 pounds. They are not 

 very good breeders, and it is a rare thing to have more rams than 

 ewes. 



4. The Cotswold. — This is one of the oldest of the established 

 breeds. They were originally heavy, coarse animals, with a thick, 

 heavy fleece, well adapted to the bleak, uninclosed CotsAvold hills. 

 They are now very hardy, and will succeed well in almost any 

 situation, and produce a great amount of wool and mutton at an 

 early age. They sometimes reach 86 pounds to the quarter. 

 The average weight of an ordinary flock when fit for the butcher, 

 at 14 or 15 months old, is about 180 pounds, and the weight of 

 wool of the whole flock would be about 7| pounds each. Many 

 of these sheep arc now being exported to Australia, to produce 

 mutton for the miners. 



5. Lincolnshires. — As thft western part of Great Britain is 

 famous for its Cotswolds, so is the Northeastern esteemed for the 

 heavy-wooled and large-framed Liucolns, to which district they 

 especially belong, and where, for many years, they held their own. 



