48 
The Sheep Stock of Gloucestershire. 
Oxford Fair : 16 rams averaged 16?. 6s. 10e?. 
Kelso : 10 rams averaged 23?. 18s. 0 d. 
Oxford Fair : 28 ram lambs averaged 13 1. 4s. 4c?. 
Cirencester : 15 ram lambs averaged 8 1. 11s. 0 d. 
In 1908 : At Cirencester August Fair, 43 shearlings averaged 
20?. Is. 8<7. Highest price 141?. 15s. 0 d. 
Oxford Fair : 33 ram lambs averaged 10?. 15s. 5c?. Highest 
price 65?. 2s. 0 d. 
The sales this year at the Palermo Show, Argentina, are 
very encouraging to Oxford breeders. Mr. Yivot averaged 
25?. 12s. be?, for fifteen. Mr. L. Perequa averaged 21?. 8s. 9c?., 
Mr. Vega’s average was 19?. 3s. 0e?. Many others made good 
prices. 
Weights. 
Referring to weights in 1905 the three shearling Oxford 
wethers gaining first prize at Smithfield weighed 9 cwt., being 
the heaviest pen in the show excepting Lincolns. In 1906 the 
first prize Oxford shearling wethers weighed 9 cwt. 18 lb., 
the Lincolns alone again exceeding them in weight. The first 
prize pen of three Oxford wether lambs in 1907 weighed 
6 cwt. 9 lb. 
One of the ram lambs in the first prize pen at this year’s 
Newcastle Royal weighed 176 lb. on June 26; it weighed 
115 lb. when 93 days old. 
The weight of wool taking the whole flock is about 7 lb. 
per head, individual sheep cutting as much as 18 lb. 
Quotations from Authorities. 
Mr. Clare Sewell Read writes referring to Oxford Downs 
in Oxfordshire : “ . . . the glory of the county, the most 
profitable sheep to the producer, the butcher, and the con- 
sumer.” 
Mr. Philip Pusey says in favour of Oxford Downs that 
they have “ superior quality and therefore higher price per lb. 
as compared with long woolled sheep, and the superior weight 
of wool and of mutton as compared with the short woolled 
sheep.” 
In conclusion I should like to quote Mr. Treadwell’s 
remarks, written in his eighty-first year and dated October 28, 
1908 : — 
“ Oxford Downs will improve any breed they are put upon, 
either give them size and weight, or quality, and improve the 
wool. We breed them now with so much more lean meat 
that they can be sold as fat lambs at light weights, or kept on 
and made any weight you like.” 
J. T. Hobbs. 
Maisey Hampton, 
Fairford, Gloucestershire. 
