38 
The Sheep Stock of Gloucestershire. 
Down Cotswold sheep of this country were originally a cross 
between the Cotswold ram and the Hampshire Down ewe ; 
but the cross, having been bred from for nearly twenty years 
without the infusion of any fresh blood, has become a distinct 
breed of sheep, quite as distinct and quite as pure as the sort 
called Shropshire Downs . . . 
In helping to produce this breed (the Oxford Down), the 
Cotswold performed one of its principal services to English 
sheep breeding, and, as was natural, the success of the new 
breed reacted on the popularity of the old. The process was, 
however, a slow one, and during the transition period there 
was a considerable demand for Cotswold rams for crossing on 
the Down ewes. 
Nor was this the only direction in which the Cotswold 
blood exerted an influence. There is scarcely a pedigreed 
long-woolled breed which does not owe something to the 
infusion of this blood. As was natural, this wide demand for 
Cotswold rams meant a brisk trade .and high prices. In this 
respect the high-water mark was reached between the years 
1860 and 1875. In 1861, the highest recorded average was 
made by Mr. Robt. Lane, of the Cottage Farm, Northleach, viz., 
34Z. 10s. 8 d. per head ; in 1867 Mr. W. Lane made an average 
of 31Z. 17s. 11 d. for fifty-four sheep, and in 1873 Mr. Robert 
Game made 28Z. 16s. 4 d. for fifty-four sheep. 
The position held by the Cotswold has undergone con- 
siderable change of late years. The popularity of the Oxford 
Down has been steadily growing and sheep of that type have 
now, and for some years past, practically replaced the Cotswold 
as the ordinary stock of the district. The Cotswold flocks 
which remain are principally pedigreed flocks, kept for the 
purpose of breeding rams or ram lambs. Even the number of 
these has declined of late years, as a comparison of the number 
of registered flocks in 1890 and 1907 will show. This reduc- 
tion in numbers has been in obedience to the laws of supply 
and demand, and the breed now seems to have reached a 
stationary point. In an age when every breed has its own 
flock-book, an out-cross, however beneficial, is seldom resorted 
to, and breeds which have owed much to an infusion of 
Cotswold blood in the past, are now rivals rather than clients. 
The result is that the market for Cotswold rams is mainly 
restricted, in this country, to the eastern counties, where the 
breed has proved itself particularly suited for crossing with 
the native sheep of the prevailing Suffolk Down type. 
The export trade, too, although it does not show the 
magnificent proportions, nor attain to the high prices, reached 
in the case of some other breeds, is not to be despised, and is 
not only general in its distribution, but is largely carried on 
