334 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 
volumes of its flock-book registering over 32,000. The 
latter has registered sheep from nearly every state in 
the Union. 
SHropsotrE Down SHEEP. Plate XII. 
By H. P. Miller 
382. The name Shropshire, as applied to sheep, was 
derived from the county of that name in England where 
the breed was developed. The breed is officially known 
as Shropshire Down, but the name is often abbrevi- 
ated to Shrop. It is a mutton breed, or perhaps we may 
properly consider it a general-purpose breed. 
383. History in England. — Its friends claim for the 
Shropshire an equally remote origin with the Southdown. 
The name, as applied to sheep, is mentioned in English 
literature as far back as 1341, there being at that time a 
grade of wool designated as Shropshire. The breed had 
not taken on many of its present characteristics, however, 
a century ago, as Plymley, in his “‘ Agriculture of Shrop- 
shire,’ published in 1803, described the sheep of that 
country thus: ‘‘ There is a breed of sheep in Longmynd, 
with horns and black faces, that seem an indigenous 
sort. They are nimble, hardy and weigh about ten 
pounds to the quarter when fatted. Their fleeces weigh 
about two and one-half pounds.” Wilson, in his Journal 
of the Royal Agricultural Society, Vol. XVI, states that 
when the Bristol wool society, in 1792, procured all the 
information available regarding sheep in England, it 
reported that on Morfe Common there were about 10,000 
sheep kept during the summer that had black, brown or 
spotted faces, a superior quality of wool, and were con- 
