68 Sheep-Farming 



teenth century. Another authority, writing about 

 that time, in describing this change, says that the 

 long-wooled Lincolns were formeriy the only variety 

 produced in the county, and they seemed formed for 

 the then rich marshy soils or cold situations, there 

 being little or no heathland under cultivation. Their 

 principal product was their long, strong wool which 

 protected them against the vicissitudes of the eastern 

 winds upon their bleak open pastures during the 

 winter months. They had, according to this au- 

 thority, long, white heads and ears, long, thin car- 

 casses with exceedingly large bone, and because of 

 their wool-bearing capacity, they were scarcely ever 

 fattened previous to their third year. 



Improvement of the old Lincoln. — When the heaths 

 of Lincolnshire began to be improved, the demand 

 was augmented for a smaller and more compact and 

 earlier maturing sheep to make those waste places 

 fertile. To establish this type, it has been recorded 

 that infusions of Leicester blood were made by a 

 number of Lincoln breeders together hiring one of 

 the most noted Leicester rams of the time for one 

 thousand guineas. 



It was not until 1862 that the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England recognized the Lincoln as a breed, 

 at the Battersea Show. They grew in favor, and in 

 1888 the American Flock Book was estabhshed, and 

 in 1892 the demand for the sheep to export to foreign 

 countries led to the formation in Great Britain of 



