108 Sheep-Farming 



wide and deep, back and loins broad, ribs curved, 

 back level, hind quarters square, tail well set on, 

 limbs short, bone fine, wool close and firm, features 

 intelHgent, forehead prominent and carrying a good 

 crest." The same writer is the only authority that 

 may be quoted in support of the statement that 

 the Cotswold has also been used in crossing on the 

 original Hampshire. Continuing, he says : " But 

 the existing breed has been further mixed. It is 

 not everywhere a simple cross between the old 

 Hampshires and the Sussex. Some thirty years or 

 more since, Mr. John Twynam (now residing in 

 Winchester) put Cotswold rams to his Hampshire 

 Down ewes." Another source of improvement in 

 the Hampshire was the better care in feeding that 

 was given them. Instead of being regarded as "ma- 

 nure carriers for light land," they had given them an 

 unusual variety of the best foods in liberal quanti- 

 ties. This is a distinctive feature of the Hampshire 

 management at the time, and it has existed so for 

 years. As early as 1861, John Wilkison, writing of 

 the usual care given to the feeding of the lambs, 

 says, "They never see an empty trough from their 

 birth to their death." As to the management that 

 assisted greatly in the improvement of this breed of 

 sheep, a modern writer describes it in detail as fol- 

 lows : "Ewes are given one pound of cake per 

 head daily with turnips and hay. As soon as the 

 lambs will eat they are given a corner to themselves 



