EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 47 



has been superseded by the improved SnflEblk Downs and Southdowns; 

 in the United States it has been crossed out of existence, yet its black 

 face and legs were quite familiar in the common sheep of the country 

 at the beginning of the present century, and are distinguishing marks 

 of the modern improved Suifolks. The plate showing a ram of the old 

 Norfolk breed represents him as he appeared at the beginning of the 

 century in England, when some improvement had been made, not by 

 crossing, but by care and selection. 



The old Southdown or Sussex sheep were polled, but it is thought 

 probable that the original breed were horned. The dusky, or some- 

 times black, hue of the heads and legs not only proves the original 

 color of the sheei) and perhaps of all sheep, but the late period at which 

 it was attempted to get rid of this dingy hue. Touatt says that in 

 almost every iiock, notwithstanding the great care which is now taken 

 to prevent it, several parti-colored lambs will be dropped; some with 

 large black spots, some half black, and some entirely black. A writer 

 in the "Annals of Agriculture" states that he had frequently twelve or 

 fourteen perfectly black lambs, although he never kept a black ram or 

 ewe. From this he draws the conclusion that their original color was 

 black; that art alone produced the white wool, and that if the best of 

 the Southdowns were left in a wild state they would in a few years be- 

 come black again. The Southdowns can trace their ancestry beyond 

 the time of William the Conqueror, and were known at and before that 

 time as grazing over the southern parts of England, from the eastern 

 shore to the extreme point of Cornwall, and particularly on a long range 

 of low, chalky hills of Sussex known as the South Downs, whence their 

 name. These sheep were of a small size and not well shaped, being long 

 and thin in the neck, high on the shoulders, low behind, high on the 

 loins, down on the rumps, the tail set on very low, perpendicular from 

 the hip bones; sharp on the back; the ribs flat, not bowing; narrow in 

 the forequarters, but good in the leg, although having big bone. The 

 wool was fine, weighing about 2 pounds to the fleece, the finest being 

 produced on chalky soil, and the mutton was excellent. The South- 

 downs were good folding sheep; not as good as the Wiltshires and 

 the Norfolks, but being of a more tractable, contented disposition, they 

 did not stray so far from home to become the prey of wolves and the 

 constant care of the shepherd. They were more hardy than the Nor- 

 folks, better enduring scarcity of food and the inclemency of the New 

 England weather, and produced more lambs and made more attentive 

 mothers. It is believed that the best sheep of Rhode Island and east- 

 ern Connecticut were generally of Southdown blood, and that the black 

 ewes sold by William Coddington to Governor Winthrop in 1648 were 

 of this breed. Black sheep had peculiar value among the early settlers 

 in some localities, inasmuch as the wool required no dyeing when made 

 into cloth, and was considered more durable in that state. Many peo- 

 ple preferred to wear their cloths of undyed or black wool. 



