838 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 
Oxfords. They were first exhibited at the Royal Agricul- 
tural Society Show in 1851, but a separate class was 
not granted them until 1862. That may be taken as the 
date when they became a recognized breed with a fixed 
type. 
391. History in America.— This breed had gained 
enough recognition by 1846, so that it was in that year 
imported to America by Clayton Reybold, of Delaware. 
In 1853, small flocks were brought to Virginia and Massa- 
chusetts. The following year, J. T. Andrew, of West 
Cornwall, Connecticut, imported a flock that spread the 
fame of the breed. In 1857, Andrew sold a small flock 
to Messrs. Smith, of Middlefield, Massachusetts, and to 
C. L. Whiting, of Granville, Ohio. In 1859, Andrew sold 
a flock to C. G. Forshay, of Texas. Interest in the breed 
then subsided, and did not revive until about 1880. 
W. A. Shafer, of Ohio, R. J. Stone, of Illinois, Geo. Mc- 
Kerrow, of Wisconsin, and Robert Miller, of Ontario, 
in the next few years imported large numbers and dis- 
seminated them widely through the United States and 
Canada. 
392. Description. — The Oxford is the largest of the 
Down breeds. It stands very much higher than the 
Shropshire, is more rangy, straighter on the under-line, 
and has longer and coarser fleece than any other of the 
group. Being a cross-bred sheep of rather recent origin, 
the type is not so well established as with the other Down 
breeds. Some specimens are coarse and rather open in 
fleece, and others finer and more compact. From the 
Hampshire line of ancestry, it inherits a tendency to dark 
or bluish skin and black spots and hairs in the fleece, 
which are very objectionable. However, it is being rapidly 
improved in these particulars. The Oxford Down has a 
