418 SHEEP INDUSTRY OP THE UNITED STATES 



them together at the third and fourth generations, his flock was made. 

 Not having used any other blood on the male side for more than twenty 

 years, he found some difiBculty at first, when putting the first-produce 

 ram to the first-produce ewe, the lambs coming too small to suit his 

 customers. To obviate this difficulty Mr. Humphrey drafted out the 

 finest and smallest bred ewes, replacing them with the largest Hamp- 

 shire Down ewes he could find that suited his fancy, still continuing to 

 use the most masculine and robust of his rams to keep up size. Some 

 of his friends advised the use of a large, coarse ram to these small 

 ewes to remedy the defect, but the larger ewe seemed to Mr. Humphrey 

 the better way, and that course he pursued. He got rid of his smallest 

 ewes and replaced them with larger ones, which gave him what lie 

 thought to be an advantage. Then using no male animal but of his 

 own blood, the pedigree of which he knew for more than twenty years, 

 he succeeded beyond his expectations. His object was to produce a 

 Down sheep of large size with good quality of flesh, and possessing 

 sufiicient strength and hardiness to retain its condition while exposed 

 in rough and bad weather to consume the root-crops on the cold hills. 

 Independently of the value of the Hampshire or West Country Down 

 in an agricultural point of view for such a locality as Hampshire, they 

 produce when slaughtered a valuable carcass of mutton, giving the 

 consumer a good proportion of flesh to the fat, which is a point not 

 sufficiently looked to in the case of many sheep. 



A later breeder than Mr. Humphrey is Mr. Eawlence, of Bulbridge, 

 near Wilton, who, since 1863, has maintained and increased the reputa- 

 tion of the Hampshire Down, having obtained a large number of prizes 

 at the Eoyal Agricultural Society, the Smithfield Club, the Bath and 

 West of England and local shows. The original flock from which Mr. 

 Eawlence's flock descended was of the Sussex breed and of moderate 

 quality. He began by drafting all the small and delicate ewes, and the 

 remainder were crossed with rams of the Hampshire breed. He bred 

 from their produce for two or three years and then had another cross 

 with the Hampshu'e, still continuing to cull defective ewes. After he 

 had obtained considerable size from the infusion of the Hampshire 

 blood, he had recourse to some of the rams bred by Mr. Humphrey, the 

 produce of the Jonas Webb Southdowns and the large Hampshire ewes. 

 Mr. Eawlence then used his own rams, and also freqiiently purchased 

 a few of the best Hampshiie ewes he could get, and put his own sheep 

 to them and used their lambs. He also put a Humphrey ram to some 

 of his best ewes, and selected rams from their produce, thus getting 

 fresh blood without making an entire cross. Other Wiltshire breeders 

 have generally followed the system practiced by Mr. Eawlence, and 

 the Southdown flocks of Wiltshire and Dorset have gradually merged 

 into the improved Hampshire Downs. 



The improvement of this sheep has its lesson in giving an illustration 

 of " what breeders can accomplish in preserving vigor of constitution 



