Report on the Sheep Exhihitcd at Windsor. G83 
sheep — No. 2630, No. 2642, and No. 2643 — and recommended same for 
disqualification, which wo saw, from cards put up, was carried out. We 
cannot give our approval to so much dressing going on in the yard ; 
some of the sheep are quite elianged in appearance from Saturday night 
until our second in8])oetion on Monday morning. 
We have loolced over all those not forward and in their place on 
Saturday, and find same to be in order. 
William Jobson. 
June 24. J. B. Workman. 
Leicesters. 
Fifty years ago tho supremacy of the Leicesters was 
undoubted. They were distinctively the representative breed of 
the country. As such they rightly took the premier position 
in the prize-list of the first Oxford Meeting, and have ever since 
retained this place, notwithstanding that they have for some 
years past not been the most numerously represented breed at 
the Shows. In the early days of the Society there were prac- 
tically only two breeds — the Leicesters and Southdowns — of 
sufficient influence to claim distinct classes. The Leicesters 
took the lead, inasmuch as at that time Long-wools were un- 
questionably in a majority. Professor Low, writing some 
forty-five years ago, remarked that, "with the progress of 
civilisation," the Long-wools had gradually gained in numbers 
on the Short-wools. In olden times, before the land became 
generally enclosed, the predominant varieties of sheep were 
Short-wools, or Downs, which were suited to the nomad life of 
the open commons and moors. With the cultivation of the 
plains and valleys and the improvement of farming, Long-wools 
became more popular, and the influence of Bakewell gave them 
fame and importance. In later years, however, and since the 
Society was established, the pendulum has swung again, and it 
would be difficult now to say whether Long-wools or Short-wools 
form the larger part of the national flocks. 
The story of the rise and progress of the " new Leicester " 
sheep has been often told, and never with more interesting 
detail than in the pages of the Journal ' by Mr. H. H. Dixon. 
This was in 1868 ; but ten years earlier, Mr. Eobert Smith, in his 
Report on the Live-Stock at Chester,^ placed on record extracts 
from some curious documents relating to the famous Dishley 
Society, or " ring " as it would be called nowadays. One of the 
most remarkable of the many regulations to which these breeders 
pledged themselves was that which enjoined that " no member 
shall give his rams, at any season of the year, any other kind of 
food than green vegetables, hay, or straw." What a revolution 
in feeding for show would be made if this rule were adopted now ! 
Vol. IV. 2nd Series (1868), p. 340. Vol. XIX. 1st Series (1858), p. 378. 
