52 OXFOEDSHIEE DOWN. 



of better selection advanced. It became possible by this means 

 to produce a distinct breed of a uniform shape and character. 



Prior to 1859 they were known as Down-Cotswolds — Mr. 

 Druce calling them his half-breeds. When the breed was still 

 in its embryonic stage, the records show that a considerable 

 amount of promiscuous crossing took place before a type was 

 finally fixed. 



Mr. C. T. Eead states: "The owner formerly divided his 

 flock into three parts, putting a half-breed ram to the ewes 

 which were about right — a Cotswold to the smaller ones, and a 

 Down to the coarser sheep," — and we also find that several breed- 

 ers used Cotswold rams on Southdown ewes, thus infusing the 

 blood of the improved Southdown in the new breed. As already 

 stated, they were named Oxford Downs in 1859, and have un- 

 doubtedly been bred pure ever since that date. They obtained 

 recognition as a distinct breed in 1862, the Eoyal Agricultural 

 Society, at the Battersea meeting, offering prizes for Oxfordshire 

 Downs, recognizing the fact that short-wooled sheep, not South- 

 downs, was not a proper classification of the middle-wooled 

 breeds of sheep of the British Isles. 



The first importation of Down-Cotswolds to America was 

 made in 1846 by Mr. Clayton Reybold of Delaware City, Del., 

 and in 1853 William C. Rives sent to Virginia one ram and five 

 ewes, a Mr. Fay introducing them into Massachusetts about the 

 same time, obtaining them from the same flock in England as 

 those obtained by Mr. Rives. Careful breeding and selection 

 has given them that vmiformity of character, the lack of which 

 was freely criticised in the early lifetime of the breed, till since 

 1870 the type has become flrmly flxed, specimens of the breed 

 being found in almost every part of Europe, Soiith Africa, Aus- 

 tralia, Xorth and South America. 



