On Cross Breeding. 
303 
shire and Wiltshire ; and although after dipping once or 
twice into this breed they then ceased to do so, yet they 
have continued breeding from descendants of the cross, and 
thus, in very many of the Hampshire and the Wiltshire flocks, 
there is still some improved Cotswold, and, consequently, 
Leicester blood.* Probably an increase of wool has thus been 
obtained. Some say that on the borders of Berkshire the Berk- 
shire Nott was also used, and others contend, although without 
proof, that a dip of the Leicester has been infused. Be this as it 
may, there is no doubt that, although for some years past the 
Hampshire sheep have, for the most part, been kept pure, yet 
they have been very extensively crossed with other breeds before 
this period. 
We cannot do better than let Mr. Twynam speak for himself on 
a matter on which he has bestowed considerable attention during 
a period of ten or twelve years. In a paper he has recently read 
before a Farmers' Club — after some observations on the respective 
merits of the Cotswold, the Leicester, the Southdown, and the 
Old Wiltshire, or Hampshire, from all which sources the present 
breed is derived — he states that his idea was to blend these various 
breeds together, which he did by using the improved Cotswold 
ram (Cotswold and Leicester) with the Hampshire Down ewe. 
As a proof of the value of the cross, he observes, — " I have the 
written documents of the feeder of one hundred tegs sold in 
1836, the wool and carcases from which returned 400/." By 
using this cross an earlier maturity is gained than by either 
breed separately. He observes : — " The Leicester and Cotswold 
will become large, heavy, and fat on the outside, but not in- 
wardly, as yearlings ; very few Downs will at that age be suffi- 
ciently advanced for slaughtering, from their known disposition to 
arrive more slowly at maturity." What, then, is wanted is young 
sheep, large, heavy, and well furnished at a year or fourteen 
months old, and this object is attained by the cross, as the testi- 
mony of the butchei's who bought the sheep will show. He 
continues, — 
" You must have observed an immense improvement in the character of the 
Hampshire sheep generally within tlie last fifteen or twenty yearS' — an increase 
of size, a heavier fleece of a longer staple, with a kindlier touch, evidencing a 
greater aptitude to fatten. I have had my attention called to this fact fre- 
quently since I have ceased to be a breeder. How has this altered character 
* It is, we believe, generally ackuowledged that the Cotswold sheep have been 
improved by crosses from the Leicester ram ; and although the origin of the latter 
is involved in some obscurity, yet it is generally supposed that Bakewell, the founder, 
whilst he used the original Leicester or the loni^-vvooUed breed, which prevailed 
mostly in the midland counties, as his foundation, crossed them with various 
other breeds until he succeeded in establishing the superiority of excellence which 
he afterwards sought to maintain by pure exclusive breeding. 
