SUPPLEMENT 757 



channel blasts, so that breeders dare not improve them overmuch, but in some parts of 

 Kent the breed is to be met with divested very much of the coarseness so objectionable in 

 the eyes of strangers. The fleece is heavy and long, and possesses fineness of fiber, good 

 luster, and a curl in the staple which gives it the "spring" which is so much prized. 

 Its special feature is its good spinning properties. 



It is also used for mixing with mohair. Their fiesh is of better quality than that of 

 most other long-wooled sheep, excepting alone the Dartmoor, and when fattened their 

 carcasses weigh from 25 to 30 pounds per quarter. As a proof that they are capable of 

 early maturity, the first prize pen of lambs of Mr.. H. Page, of Walmer, weighed 4 cwt. 

 3 quarters 4'pounds, whidi far excelled that made by the heaviest pen of Leicester lambs, 

 to wit: 3 cwt. 2 quarters 10 pounds, although the latter were two weeks older. 



Tlie Boscommon. — The Boscommon breed is a celebrated long-wool variety in Ireland 

 which now rivals in usefulness most of the English breeds of a similar kind, and as the 

 old Eoscommon was peculiarly gaunt, big-boned and unshapely, the transformation, 

 by a plentiful infusion of Leicester blood has been truly marvelous. Shearling wethers 

 are xisually fed up to from 25 to 30 pounds per quarter, and draft ewes are sometimes 

 fed up to 40 pounds per quarter. The fleeces of a flock generally average about 8 pounds 

 each. The wool is soft, deep-grown and rich. The breed is not only to be found in the 

 county giving its name, but also in West Meath and Limerick. There is in the North 

 of England a long-wooled breed called the Westmoreland, and in Yorkshire another of 

 a somewhat similar kind called the Wensleydale. Both are rent-paying sheep and are 

 more hardy than the Leicester with which they have been crossed. At the Derby Eoyal 

 show a handsome shearling ram of the Westmoreland breed, belonging to Mr. J. Thomp- 

 son, of Singleton Park, Kendal, took the second prize, in a general class, competing with 

 animals of the Devon long wool and Wensleydale breeds. It was stated that the sheep 

 had clipped 27 pounds of wool the previous April. 



The Oxfordshire. — The Oxfordshire breed deserves consideration next, as standing be- 

 tween long-wooled and short- wooled varieties. It is in fact a hybrid derived from Cots- 

 wold and Hampshire; but which for many years has, by careful selection, been brought 

 to a tolerably uniform type. The best of the flocks are found in Oxfordshire, Bucks, 

 Beds, and Hants, but the breed is very much extended owing to its wealthy character, 

 and the combination of quality and quantity in the mutton carcass. It has been claimed 

 that weights of carcass exceeding 30 pounds per quarter have often been obtained 

 from wether hoggets a year old, and considering that the flesh is juicy and of equal 

 quality to the Hampshire, it is very much in favor. Mr. John Treadwell, Upper Win- 

 chester, Aylesbury, Bucks, writes that from his flock of Oxfordshire Down sheep he 

 lambs 240 ewes, and breeds about 100 shearling rams annually, which he sells at auction 

 in July and August. The average at which they have sold for the past two years has 

 been £23 9g. 6d. each. Many went to Germany to cross the Merinos. For thirty years 

 Mr. Treadwell has worked this breed and kept up the pedigree. He claims for it adap- 

 tation to all climates, all soils and systems of management, and that the breed improves 

 any other it crosses, especially the Merinos. 



Tlie Sampshire or Wiltshire Downs. — The principal district for the Hampshire breeds 

 are South Wilt and North Hants, they being stronger and less refined in the one district 

 than the other. The Hampshires are also bred to a considerable extent in Dorset, Berks, 

 Cambridge, Surrey, Sussex, and Kent. 



This breed appears to rival all others in early maturity, a characteristic very much 

 fevored in its development by the numerous watery meadows of the chalk district, allow- 

 ing early lambing and good feeding in early spring. 



Mr. William Parsons, of West Stratton, who has a celebrated flock of the Hampshire 

 Downs, says tiat the Hampshire climate is often bitterly cold in winter, owing to the 

 hiUy and exposed position of the country. The subssil of the sheep district is prin- 

 cipally chalk, and much of the land is poor and thin. One of Mr. Parsons's greatest 

 successes in the show yard was scored only last December at the Smithfields Club show, 

 where his pen of sheep were adjudged one of the finest ever exhibited, while a pen of 

 lambs belonging to Mr. W. Newton, of Berks, weighed no less than 6 cwts. 2 quarters 

 2 pounds at the age of ten months and two weeks. When it is considered that only one 

 of the South Down wethers a year older exceeded this weight, it must be admitted that 

 the early maturity of this breed is most astonishing. The breed is said to have derived 

 its origin by an amalgamation of two old extinct ones, the Wiltshire Horns and Berk- 

 shire Notts, and subsequent crosses of South Downs. 



The Shropshire. — The Shropshires are traced back to two very old breeds, the Long- 

 mynds and the Cannock Chase variety, with an overtopping of the Southdown on the 

 amalgamated race. No native breed has extended so rapidly of late years, having run 

 all over the northwestern part of the kingdom and the Midlands, being met with here 

 and there, also, from Scotland to Cornwall, while there are some exceptionally good flocks 

 in Ireland. Although growing to less weight than the Hampshire and certainly not so 



