306 
On Cross Breeding. 
shire or West Conntry Down in an ngricultnral point of view for sncli localities 
as ours, they produce when slaughtered a valuable carcase of mntton, giving 
the consumer a good pro]iortion of flesh to the fat, which is a point that may 
be too much lost sight of. I will, in proof of it, relate an instance which a 
gentleman told me the other day. When residing in another county he sent 
to his butcher for 3 lbs. of mutton. Q'he fat seemed so much out of propor- 
tion to the lean, that he bad the curiosity to weigh the lean. After carefully 
cutting it out, he found it to weigh | lb., or only one-fourth of the whole. 
This anecdote indicates to those w'ho are attempting by crosses to establish 
a new breed, or to improve an old one, the importance of producing an animal 
in which the flesh forms a due and sufficient proportion of the whole." 
In Dorsetshire the same system has been pursued as in Wilt- 
shire, althougli more recent! v and to much less extent. 
In the eastern part of the county the Wiltshire system of 
crossing has been followed with still greater latitude. The 
object being to secure size without coarseness, the rams of the 
Hampshire as well as the Sussex are each used, as tlie fancy of 
the breeder may direct. In one flock, well known to the writer, 
of very good repute — so much so, that an annual sale of rams and 
ram-lambs takes place, and for several years past has been very 
successful — the owner, whose flock was originally Southdown, 
has increased the size of his sheep by means of the Hampshire 
ram, but does not liesitate to avail himself of the Sussex from 
time to time to counteract, as lie says,. any tendency to sourness, 
and also uses the choicest of his own breed as well. Here is an 
evident cross, carried to a considerable extent and with great 
success, as the high price realized by the sale of fat tegs suffi- 
ciently testifies. Other breeders in this county adhere firmly 
to the Southdown, which they seek to improve by using first- 
class rams ; and the superior quality of their fleece, as compared 
with the Hampshire, forms no small part of their motives for so 
doing. Some years since the Southdown sheep in Dorsetshire 
received a cross from the Devon or Bampton Nott, a large long- 
wooUed sheep, but with a good disposition to fatten. The cross 
was approved of, and the produce were used by other flock- 
masters, which circumstance has perhaps rendered the Dorset- 
shire Southdown somewhat larger tlian the Sussex. 
The Dorset hoi ned shecyi, so valuable for their early lambs, some 
fifty or sixty years since reigned supreme over the Dorsetshire 
Downs. 1 hey were then in many instances supplanted by the 
Sussex, which were found better suited for folding, and were more 
esteemed for their mutton. Crossing was tried in many instances, 
but altliough the half-bred lamb from the Dorset ewe was and 
still is in great request for early lamb, yet the breeds did not 
assimilate well ; they were as a flock inferior to their parents, and 
were consequently discontinued ; and whilst the Dorset held their 
own in the west, the Southdown took their place in the eastern 
