92 SHEEP INDUSTRY OP THE UNITED STATES 



pounds. The ewes were very prolific, commonly bearing twins, some- 

 times three at a birth, and cases are recorded where a single animal 

 brought forth 16 lambs in four years. These sheep prospered most 

 in small flocks, in i)astures with cattle. They were bred to some extent 

 about 1808 to 1815, in Burlington County, New Jersey, and in the 

 vicinity of Philadelphia, and attained a high degree of excellence and 

 popularity, and traces of them lingered for many years afterward, until 

 the New Leicester and the Southdown completely suj)erseded and su]j- 

 planted them. 



THE SOUTHDOWN. 



About the close of the past century an advertisement appeared in a 

 Philadelphia paper announcing the arrival of some Southdown sheep. 

 The owner stated that they were animals of the pure breed, but he 

 could not tell how he got them, from whose flock in the old country 

 they came, who brought them, nor in what ship they came, as it would 

 subject the vessel to confiscation and the parties involved to fines and 

 imprisonment. These were probably the first pure-bred Southdowns 

 introduced into the United States. 



In 1803 Dr. Eose commenced a system of wool-growing with a small 

 flock of Southdown sheep. These were introduced by him and estab- 

 lished on his large estate in the town of Fayette, Seneca County, New 

 York. They did remarkably well, and the blood was diffused through- 

 out the county and that portion of the State. In 1813 Dr. Eose crossed 

 his Southdown flock with the Spanish Merino, and again about 1826 by 

 the Saxony Merino. 



Other breeds of sheep, such as the Lincolnshire, the Devonshire, and 

 the Wiltshire, come across our inquiries between 1800 and 1810, but in 

 such an indistinct manner that they can not be definitely traced. The 

 Lincolnshire was similar to the Teeswater ; were a large-carcassed sheep 

 and carried more wool than any others. They had no horns, had white 

 faces, long, thin, and weak carcass, the ewes weighing from 14 to 20 

 pounds the quarter; the three year-old wethers from 20 to 30 pounds. 

 They had thick, rough, white legs, large bones, thick pelts and long 

 -wool, from 10 to 18 inches, and weighing from 8 to 11 pounds per fleece 

 and covering a slow-feeding, coarse-grained carcass of mutton. Some of 

 these unshapely, ill-favored animals had been imported before 1796, but 

 being ill-adapted toNewEngland pasturage they did not thriveand were 

 generally abandoned. The Devonshire sheep, noticed as occurring in 

 Massachusetts about 1800 to 1810, it would be difificult to define. There 

 were many varieties known to Devonshire at that time, most of them 

 going through radical changes, in a transition state, in fact. They were 

 mostly in great affinity with the old Dorset sheep, and had white faces 

 and legs, generally horned, but some without horns. They were small 

 in the head and neck, and small in the bone everywhere, the carcass 

 narrow and flat-sided, and they weighed when fat from 9 to 12 pounds 



