574 
Report on the Farm-Prize Competition o/" 1886. 
having taken place, which is claimed to be equal to the best 
Polled Scot or Highlander. " The percentage of dead-weight 
to live has ranged from 65 to 66 • 75 for all animals of the Red 
Polled breed whose dead-weight has been compared with live- 
weight." 
Mr. Euren, the able and courteous editor of the ' Red Polled 
Herdbook,' kindly supplies the following : " There is evidence 
that Red Polled cattle were all along ^the district of South 
Norfolk and North Suffolk from a very early period. The 
theory started by Youatt that they were descended from Gallo- 
ways has no evidence whatever to support it. The probability 
rather is that the cattle were here from the times of the Danish 
settlement, that both the cattle and trotting horses were here 
from the times of the early Norse settlement. This view is 
corroborated by the fact that similar cattle have been known in 
Hungary from time immemorial, and these we may suppose to 
be descended from the Polled cattle which Herodotus mentions 
as having been owned by the Scythians." Whether the breed 
is fairly entitled to the claim of antiquity thus put forward is a 
matter of less consequence than the acknowledged utility it now 
possesses, alike for the grazier and the dairy-farmer, and the 
two counties are to be congratulated on the conservation and 
improvement of so valuable a tribe of animals. 
In the breed of sheep within the present century there have 
been greater changes and improvements even than in cattle. 
In Arthur Young's time, the breed prevalent in Norfolk and 
Suffolk was a black-faced horned sheep, which he mentions as 
having existed there for ages, and of which the farmers were 
extremely proud. His description of them is as follows : " They 
are horned ; bear clothing-wool, the third in the kingdom for 
fineness; fleece about 2 lbs. Shape bad, loins narrow, back- 
bone high, chines thin, legs long, pelt good, disposition very 
wild and roving, not hardy, though formerly thought so ; 
rate of stocking, half a sheep per acre. Mutton, 18 Jbs. per 
quarter, equal to any in the world in cold weather, and yields 
an uncommon quantity of high-coloured gravy." Southdowns 
began to be introduced about that time, and have ever since held 
their ground — several of the crack show flocks of the country 
being located in Norfolk, witness Lord VValsingham's, Mr. 
Colman's, the Prince of Wales's, and others — and the result of 
crossing the old Norfolk sheep with them was the creation of a 
new breed possessing the good qualities of both, the lean meat 
of Norfolk with the better grazing propensities of the Southdown, 
and a sheep eminently adapted for the sands of East Anglia. The 
breed is now known as the Suffolk, and retains the characteristic 
black face and legs of the old Norfolk, but has got rid of the 
