Rise and I'royrcss of t lie Leicesler Breed of iShcejj. 355 
The blue-headed Leicester is most liked, and the top knots are 
kejTt oin the ewes as a preventive against flj-gall. Many of the 
Duke of Rutland's tenants use the Lincoln ram, as they consider 
them hardier than the Leicester, and as adding nearly 2 lbs. 
all round to the fleece. Lincoln ewes are not in much recjuest, 
as their fleeces become very much clotted upon strong land. 
Cotswold ewes are thought bad feeders, and are rarely to be met 
with, but Wiltshire Downs and Dorsets have been introduced for 
the sake of putting to the Leicester for early lambs. Leicester, 
Lincoln, Shropshire, and half-bred Leicester-Lincoln rams are all 
used more or less. The " Shrops " have come into high favour 
as a cross with the Leicester ewes, except on the Harboro' side, 
where the wool is finer in the staple, but not so heavy. They 
show great constitution on wet land and very few ewes miss to 
them. The cross averages as much as the pure Leicester in 
weight, but the latter cuts fully 1^ lbs. to 2 lbs. more wool. 
Both local and London butchers like " the black foot in them " 
as they phrase it. The great advantage of the union is that the 
lean flesh of the Shrop corrects the fat back of the Leicester, 
while the latter contributes thriftiness and weight of wool. Some 
farmers breed from the first cross and very seldom go beyond, 
but two or three flocks have been crossed from Leicesters into 
Shrops, as black-faces were into Cheviots on the hills near Beattock. 
Mr. Meire, the great Shropshire improver, first used Leicesters 
on his Shrops to give them fatter backs, and then Southdowns to 
darken the faces. The Leicesters are also gaining a strong hold, 
both pure and as a cross, on those Herefordshire clays, of which 
the Ryeland once had a monoply. The late Mr. Fisher Hobbs 
gave it as his opinion, that the climate of Essex did not suit the 
sort, and was unfavourable to the growth of wool. In Warwick- 
shire the Hampshire Down ram on Leicester ewes is producing 
tegs, which with high feeding have sometimes weighed 26 lbs. a 
quarter in April. It has also proved a good cross for the Romney 
Marsh ewes, though the lambs of the first cross did not stand the 
Marsh so well as the native Romney, and it has not been found 
advisable to carry it on to a second. It nicks well with the Exmoor, 
and takes out the horn at once ; and Mr. John Overman has demon- 
strated for several years in the great Christmas shows its high 
feeding properties when combined with Southdown. Pure bred 
Leicesters were thought too small for the Norfolk men, and 
latterly the great staple of their mutton supplies have been by 
rams— in which Leicester, and Cotswold, and Lincoln are most 
judiciously blended — crossed with the Hampshire Down or 
native ewe. The Cotswold on Leicester cross has never been 
very happy, and the produce often comes rather nondescript in 
shape, and with a tendency to lumpy shoulders. 
Devonshire and Cornwall men have always been steady 
