46 SHEEP INDUSTRY OP THE UNITED STATES 



They were favorites with the butcher, and carried much internal fat. 

 They were very hardy, required no artiticial food during the winter, 

 except a little hay, and were particularly adapted to the exposed posi- 

 tion on Boston Bay, where they are supposed first to have been known 

 in Massachusetts. 



The old sheep of Herefordshire were of two varieties, the Eyeland 

 being the distinguishing one, so called from a district in the southern 

 part of the county on which was formerly grown a great quantity of 

 rye, and where these sheep were bred. It was a small breed, seldom 

 exceeding more than 14 or 16 pounds the quarter in the wether, or from 

 10 to 13 pounds in the ewe. They had white faces, and were polled, tlie 

 wool growing close to, and sometimes covering the eyes. The legs were 

 small and clean ; the bone altogether light; the carcass round and com- 

 pact, and peculiarly developing itself on the loins and haunches. The 

 Eyeland was noted for the softness and fineness of its wool; in fact, it 

 was long regarded as the finest produced in Great Britain, and was 

 compared to that of Apulia and Tarentum. The weight of the fleece 

 rarely exceeded 2 pounds. The Eyelands have practically disappeared 

 from English sheep husbandry. Their former value, arising fr"om the 

 value of their wool in the manufacture of native cloth, could not be 

 maintained against the finer wool of Spain and Saxony, and as mutton 

 sheep they have given way to the Leicesters and Southdowns. The 

 value of these sheep to the early settlers, principally for their fine wool, 

 was fully appreciated, and traces of their blood were visible in some 

 parts of Massachusetts and ISTew York as late as 1809 or 1810. 



The aboriginal sheep of Norfolk and Suffolk, such as the first Ameri- 

 can settlers knew them, were long and slender, the legs long, the face 

 and legs black or mottled — an unmingled and intense black being con- 

 sidered as a proof of purity of blood; the face was long and thin, flat 

 on the forehead and pointed at the muzzle; the countenance lively, and 

 expressive of mingled timidity and wildness. The horns of the ewes 

 and wethers were of a middle size, and generally straight; while the 

 horns of the ram were long and beautifully spiral, like those of the old 

 Wiltshire ram. They had wide loins, deficient forequarters, low 

 shoulders, and a sharp and unsightly chine, with a small quantity of 

 short and fine wool, seldom exceeding 2J pounds. The wool had sufiB- 

 cient felting properties to fit it for being made into coarse cloths neces- 

 sary for the raiment of the early settlers. They fattened readily, and, 

 like the old Wiltshires, were exceedingly valuable as folding sheep. 

 They did well on all sorts of pastures, and were very wild and restless 

 in their habits, resembling in that respect as well as in their general 

 appearance the deer. A good mutton sheep, producing wool suitable 

 for coarse cloth, picking up a living on rough land, and above all valu- 

 able as a folding sheep, they were deservedly popular and were widely 

 known in New England, more particularly, however, in Ehode Island 

 and eastern Massachusetts. The breed is now extinct; in England it 



