HAMPSHIEB DOWN SHEEP. 59 



sheds, they are given turnips and the corn is increased to a 

 pint each. They are marketed generally at Christmas. They 

 usually dress from 75 to 100 lbs. This year 15 that were sold 

 to Bryan Lawrence of New York averaged in weight 87^ lbs. 



" With regard to the wool-producing qualities of the South 

 Down, the one year that I kept an accurate accoTint, the ewe 

 flock, including among the number sheep eight and nine years 

 old, all having suck;led lambs, gave 6 lbs. 5} oz.; the yearling 

 ewes 8 lbs. 12 oz.; the yearling rams from 8 to 12 lbs. This 

 was unwashed wool, though as you are aware, their wool is 

 not of a greasy character, and. should not be shrunk at the 

 most over one-fourth, by the buyer. 



" You may remember to have seen some notices of the sales 

 of Jonas "Webb's South Downs. The first sale, in 1861, 

 included all the flock except lambs, and numbered 200 rams 

 and V'ZO ewes. They brought £10,926. The balance were sold 

 in 186S, and numbered 148 rams and 289 ewes. Amount of 

 sale, £5,720. Total two years sales, more than $80,000."* 



Mr. Thorne further writes me: — "Breeding ewes require 

 exercise ; I have always considered it more to the advantage 

 of meadows than of sheep that they should be yarded." His 

 sheep have been extremely healthy. The only prevalent 

 disease among them has been puerperal or parturient fever, at 

 lambing. Prior to 1859 he had but one or two cases a year, 

 but that year twenty, and four ewes died. This was his worst 

 year, and under a new mode of treatment the disease is 

 apparently entirely disappearing from his flock. It never, 

 however, was confined to his flock or family of sheep, he 

 informs me, but has been a prevalent disease among sheep of 

 aU kinds in the neighborhood, though often called by other 

 names. 



The ram, a cut of which is given on page 56, is " Arch- 

 bishop," already mentioned, bred by Mr. Jonas Webb, and 

 owned by Mr. Thorne. The ewes, cuts of which are given on 

 page 57, are a pair of two-year olds bred by Mr. Thorne from 

 his imported stock. 



Hampshire Downs. — Professor Wilson thus describes the 

 Hampshire Downs : 



" This rapidly increasing breed of sheep appears to be the 

 result of a recent cross between the pure South Down and the 

 old horned white-face sheep of Hampshire and Wiltshire, by 

 which the hard-working, though fine quality, of the former is 



* This letter is dated Thoi-ndale, Washington Hollow, N. Y., April 3, 1863. 



