CHAPTER XV 

 THE DORSET HORN 



History. — The Old Stock. — The native home of the Dorset Horn 

 is in the counties of Dorset and Somerset in south central England. 

 In soil and climate these counties are similar to those adjoining 

 them on the east in which the Hampshires were developed. No 

 accounts are given to show exactly how the Dorset Horn was made, 

 but as nearly as is known it was developed entirely by selection 

 from a native stock bearing a close resemblance to, but not iden- 

 tical with the old Wiltshire that was so prominent as one of the 

 progenitors of the Hampshire. Descriptions of this parent stock 

 refer to its horns, fine wool, and also to the color of the lips and 

 nostrils which in the main were black but occasionally were flesh- 

 colored. The flesh color of nostrils and lips characteristic of the 

 modern D-orset Horn seems to have prevailed first in Somerset, 

 where the sheep were somewhat larger and more rangy than those 

 in Dorset. 



Development of the Modem Dorset Horn. — During the first 

 half of the nineteenth century Leicesters, Southdowns, Merinos, 

 and still other breeds were crossed on the old Dorset Horn stock. 

 For a time the Southdown became very popular and it seemed as 

 though the native sheep in their purity of breeding would disap- 

 pear. About 1860, however, the tide began to turn in their favor, 

 evidently because a few breeders in West Dorset had been steadily 

 improving them by selecting toward the type desired without losing 

 any of the fecundity and hardiness characteristic of the old stock. 

 By thickening the shoulders the form was greatly improved and 

 through selecting for flesh-colored nostrils and lips and for horns 

 that curled around by the side of the face without rising above 

 the head or inclining backwards, a uniform, distinctive and pleas- 

 ing type was secured. 



Richard Seymour, living in southwest Dorset, near Bridport, a 

 little city close by the coast of the English Channel, was the first 

 notable improver of Dorset Horns. Between 1830 and 1840 he 

 increased size and improved symmetry to such an extent that his 

 flock was the best to be found. A group of twenty or more fol- 

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