CHAPTER IX 

 THE MUTTON BREEDS 



All of the mutton breeds kept in the United States, excepting 

 the Tunis and Corriedale, were developed in Great Britain. Be- 

 ginning with Balcewell the era for evolving these breeds covered 

 almost a century. Roughly s.peaking, they were evolved from two 

 general types. One of these was a large, coarse, slow-maturing sheep, 

 growing long, coarse wool and yielding a fleece weighing from seven 

 to twelve pounds. 'With the exception of a few dark spots, the black 

 hoofs and black skin around the nostrils, its face and legs were white. 

 It was kept principally On the low fertile lands in the counties of 

 Lincoln, Leicester, and on the hills of Gloucester. The other type, 

 being smaller, was suited to the hills and lighter soils. It grew 

 short, fairly fine wool and produced a fleece weighing from two to 

 five poiuids. Some strains had black faces and legs; others were 

 white in their markings, and still others had speckled or gray faces 

 and legs. As a rule the sheep belonging to the smaller type were good 

 travellers and were adapted to herding on the commons or^ downs 

 in fairly large numbers. A rather common practice was to fold 

 them on the arable land at night in order to get the manure for field 

 crops, and to drive them several miles out during the day to feed 

 on the downs. 



From the large, coarse-wool type such breeds as the modern 

 English Leicester, the Border Leicester, Cotswold, Lincoln, Romney 

 Marsh, Devon Long Wool, South Devon, and Wensleydale have been 

 developed. From the smaller type producing short and fairly fine 

 wool we have secured most of the down breeds, such as the South- 

 down, Shropshire, Hampshire, Suffolk, and also such breeds as the 

 Dorset Horn and Ryeland. In a few cases a breed has been de- 

 veloped by crossing improved sheep descended from each of the old 

 types. A notable case is that of the Oxford Down, produced by 

 crossing the Hampshire with the Cotswold. 



British breeders are thoroughly grounded in the belief that dif- 

 ferent environments demand diiferent types of sheep. In their 

 opinion sheep adapted to the lowlands are not profitable in the hills 

 and on the mountains. And the soils in regions of similar elevation 



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