Practical Agriculture. 
553 = 28T 
•arly a century has displaced or changed, refined and increased 
e early maturity and fattening property of many breeds in a 
ajority of English counties, in Scotland, and in Ireland, is 
ill the foundation of the most valuable crosses, and has been 
and the most potent instrument in improving the native races 
sheep in very many of the pastoral countries of the world. 
The old Leicester was a long, heavy, coarse-woolled animal, The old breK). 
ith large frame, heavy bone, sharp chine, mean rump, and loose 
In ; seldom ready for the butcher before three years old, when 
e wethers weighed 25 to 30 lbs. per quarter, and the coarse 
;ece about 10 lbs. The Dishley or New Leicester was dis- 
aguished by a general squareness of outline, a uniformly broad 
id straight firm back, terminating in a square rump, and full, 
■ep shoulder ; with rather too much tendency to the " soda- 
ater bottle" — full middle and rounding-off ends — however, to 
ease a Lincolnshire man, who likes a thick scrag at one end, 
id a wide rump and heavy leg of mutton at the other ; it had a • 
all-arched rib, full plait, deep wide chest, tapering neck, a 
nail head, covered with short white hair ; an open countenance 
id clean muzzle, a full but quiet eye, and long, thin, well- 
aced ears. Its offal was light, bone uniformly fine, twist well 
rned, and its pelt was thin, soft, and elastic, with a mellow 
indling. Its principal deficiency consisted in a want of size, 
4;htness of wool, and the comparative want of fertility and 
)od milking qualities in the ewe. 
Pure Leicesters of the present day vary much in type ac- Points of 
irding to the objects which have governed the breeder in his 
!>ntinual process of selection, and partly also according to the 
fluence of locality ; so that in some flocks the size is only 
i)out two-thirds what it is in others ; and yet the exquisitely 
mmetrical and beautiful sheep of one flockmaster and the 
rger frame, coarser sheep of another, have alike descended 
iith a pure strain from the renowned early stocks. In general, 
is correct to say that the fore-quarter of the Leicester is 
markably well developed ; the shoulders are wide and sloping, 
'Hsequently there is no rigidness along the back ; the bosom is 
i!ep and wide, and the fore-flank very full. The animal stands 
ose to the ground. The neck is short, so that the head is 
■ ised but little above the line of the back. In Youatt's 
inguage : " the neck full and broad at the base, where it pro- 
eds Irom the chest, but gradually tapering towards, and 
jdng particularly fine at the junction of the head and neck ; 
|e neck seeming to project straight from the chest, so that 
lere is, with the slightest possible deviation, one continued 
)rizontal line from the rump to poll." The ribs are well 
[•rung, and the carcass is very true ; the hips are well covered, 
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