The various Breeds of Sheep in Great Britain. 235 
Down, and the wool of a coarse though longer staple. Their 
fattening propensity is scarcely equal to that of the South Down. 
These points have all received groat attention lately from the 
breeders ; and the improved Hampshire Down now possesses, 
both in shape, quality of wool, aptitude to fatten, and early 
maturity, all tlie qualities for which the pure South Down has 
been so long and so justly celebrated. Tlie lambs are usually 
dropped early and fed for the markets as lamb, or kept until the 
following spring, when," if well fed, they weigh from 80 to 
100 lbs. and command a good market. 
The Hampshire Downs are used like the South Downs, for the 
purpose of crossing with other breeds ; being hardier in consti- 
tution they are perhaps better calculated for the northern districts, 
where the climate is sometimes very severe. 
Norfolk Doivn. — This is one of the rapidly declining breeds, 
having been gradually forced to give way to the superior merits 
of the South Down. It is now very rarely to be met with, and 
is confined entirely to one or two flocks in Norfolk and in 
Suffolk. At the beginning of the present century, when the 
sandy wastes of the Eastern Counties were being brought into 
improved tillage cultivation, the hardy nature and constitution 
of the Norfolk Downs rendered them very suitable for a country 
where they had to travel daily backwards and forwards from a 
distant fold, and where the herbage was both scant and inferior 
in quality. They were horned, and had black faces and legs ; 
rather low in the shoulders and neck, and generally deficient in 
those points which we are accustomed to look for in our improved 
breeds. At the same time they were good doers ; fattened early, 
even on poor keep, and produced excellent mutton, with a large 
proportion of loose fat, which even now renders them favourites 
with the butcher when they are met with. As the cultivation of 
those counties advanced, the comparative merits of the district 
breed and of the South Downs became more decided ; and in 
some trials made on an extensive scale by the Earl of Albemarle 
and others, it was found that the latter consumed a smaller quan- 
tity of food for their size, and gained from that food a superior 
weight ; that being less restless than the Norfolk, they destroyed 
less by running over it ; that the ewes produced a greater propor- 
tion of lambs ; that the casualties in lambing were less ; and that 
the produce of wool was heavier in quantity and higher in market 
value. These points, clearly demonstrated, told their tale, and 
now a pure bred Norfolk Down is but rarely met with. 
The cross breed between the Norfolk and the South Down is 
commonly met with in the Eastern Counties. They are lighter 
than the South Downs, with very dark faces and legs, and small 
curved horns. 
