622 



SHEEP 



lies over the body in fine spiral locks. Usually no wool extends 

 beyond the ears, excepting a very small tuft, and the legs are not 

 commonly wooled below knee and hock. One is impressed with 

 the fact that the Leicester is somewhat upstanding or appears to 

 lack depth of rib, as the case may be. 



The size of the Leicester is large, though this is the smallest of 

 the long-wooled breeds. Average-sized mature rams weigh from 

 225 to 250 pounds and the ewes from 175 to 200 pounds. Shaw 



and Heller state ^ that the 

 rams usually weigh from 

 225 to 27s pounds and the 

 ewes from 175 to 225 

 pounds. Volume I of 

 the "American Leicester 

 Record" credits the rams 

 with attaining a weight of 

 300 pounds and the ewes 

 200 to 2 50 pounds. These, 

 however, are outside figures 

 rather than fair averages. 

 The Leicesters as mut- 

 ton producers do not rank 

 high. They do not mature 

 early, and when mature they 

 are too large for common 

 market demands and unless killed before twelve months of age 

 produce too fat a mutton. Neither is the quality quite equal to the 

 best standard. Wrightson states that the Leicester is best fattened 

 when from twelve to fifteen months old, when the carcass weighs 

 about 80 to 100 pounds. At three of the American Fat-Stock 

 Shows held at Chicago the following figures were secured, showing 

 the best records made by Leicester fat wethers : 



KiG. 293. A Border Leicester ram owned by 

 Alexander Cross, Knockdon, Maybole, Scot- 

 land. From photograph by the author 



Days Old 



969 . 

 600 . 

 23s ■ 



Live Weight 



Average Daily 

 Gain from Birth 



300 pounds 37 pound 



295 pounds 49 pound 



178 pounds ... ■ -75 pound 



1 " Domestic Breeds of Sheep," Bulletin g^, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1914. 



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