520 Hejjoi i on the I^arm Prize Gompeiition irt 
There is very little dairying done in the county, unless it 
is quite in the immediate neighbourhood of the larger towns. 
Most farmers, large or small, keep a few cows and rear their 
produce. 
The present Lincoln Sheep are probably, in most cases, much- 
improved descendants of the " Old Lincolnshire Long Wools." 
These in their time have been known as coarse and unshapely 
animals, though remarkable for weight of wool — a much greater 
consideration in earlier days than at present — and for size of 
frame, which was also of more value when large joints were 
saleable, and quality not put so much before quantity by the 
public. Extraordinary weights of wool and mutton are given 
by these sheep after some years of improvement, as much as 
14 stones of 14 lbs. per carcase being mentioned. They were 
very hardy, and therefore well suited to the climate as well as 
to the soil of the county. There are several famous breeders of 
Lincoln rams in the county, one of whom will be mentioned 
particulai-ly. Sheep that would attain great weights were till 
lately in much demand for summer grazing in the fat pastures 
of South Lincolnshire, but modern tastes and prices have quite 
changed the system, as even in many cases the breed itself. 
Very contrary opinions were expressed to the Judges by 
different feeders and breeders upon the ability of the white faces 
to hold their own in the future, some asserting that they must 
at any rate be crossed with more " colour " because they sell so 
badly, whilst others maintained that they had not found it so. 
Much appears to depend upon the place of sale. If a local one 
the depreciation is nob, it seems, by any means so apparent 
as it clearly is, for instance, in London. Still we do not wonder 
that the Lincoln men stick to their breed, for not only are the 
sheep £0 well acclimatised, but they are less liable to lameness 
than many others, they finish quicker on the kind of winter food 
which is given them, and, if the writer's judgment serves him, 
they are more fitted to the summer tred,tment they receive. 
The Braurjht Horses are of the Shire Breed, and excellently 
do they represent its famous and characteristic points. It may 
be said in fact that the breed originated in the lowlands of 
Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, although Derbyshire now 
appears to be rather stealing the front place. 
Mr. Keynolds says in his most interesting and valuable 
paper on " The History of the English Cart Horse," in vol. i. 
of the Cart Horse Stud Boole : — 
"It is probable that In tbe seventeenth century, when the fens of Cam- 
bridgeshire and Lincolnshire were brought into more extended cultivation 
by Vermuyden and his compatriots, a number of massive horses, whose 
