CHAPTER LII 



THE DORSET HORN 



The native home of Dorset Horn sheep is in the counties of 

 Dorset, Somerset, and Wiltshire in southern England. Dorset, 

 from which the breed is named, faces the English Channel on the 

 soqth, with Somerset and Wiltshire in the interior as the northern 

 boundaries. Dorset contains about one thousand square miles and 

 is strictly an agricultural county, crossed by low-lying Downs, fer- 

 tile, rolling hills, yielding rich harvests of the cereals, roots, and 

 grasses. It is a soil rich in lime, and as one approaches the 

 high cliffs from the sea he is much impressed with their chalky 

 whiteness. The climate is mild and moist and well suited to out- 

 door life the year round. From Weymouth harbor passenger ships 

 make regular trips across the Channel to Jersey and Guernsey. 



The origin of the Dorset Horn sheep seems to be from the old 

 native stock of Dorset and Somerset, which, so far as we have 

 records, possessed horns in both sexes and was entirely white. 

 As far back as 1749 Ellis in his "Shepherd's Guide" describes 

 the sheep in this region as having "white faces, white and short 

 legs, broad loins, and fine curled wool." In 1842 Professor Low 

 wrote that from time immemorial there had existed in Dorset a 

 breed of sheep with horns common to both sexes, having white 

 face and legs, low shoulders, broad, deep loins, long but not coarse 

 limbs, black lips and nostrils (though sometimes flesh-colored), and 

 possessing fine wool. In the adjoining county of Somerset was a 

 rather larger type of much the same breed, lanker in form, longer 

 wooled, and with pink or flesh-colored nose (by which they were 

 known as " Pink-Nosed Somersets "), which fattened to greater 

 weight and had larger lambs than the sheep of Dorsetshire. Low 

 further comments on the encroachment of the Southdown and 

 Leicester on the Dorset territory, stating that pure-bred flocks 

 were becoming scarce owing to the crossing of these breeds. In 

 fact, he stated that the breed was gradually diminishing and was 



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