64 
SUFFOLK  SHEEP. 
The  beautiful  and  useful  breed  of  sheep,  which  is  known  as 
the  Suffolk,  has  never  until  now  had  a signed  article  in  the 
“ Royal  ” Journal  entirely  devoted  to  it.  Furthermore,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  no  “ Champion  ” prize  for  them  has  been  given 
at  the  Society’s  Shows,  pictures  of  the  Suffolk  are  not  included 
in  the  series  of  very  beautiful  photographs  of  specimens  of 
prominent  breeds  of  sheep  which  from  time  to  time  adorn  the 
volumes  of  the  Journal.  It  is  all  the  more  appropriate  that  an 
account  of  the  breed  should  appear  in  this  issue,  published  as 
the  Society  is  about  to  hold  its  Show  at  Norwich,  for  in  1886, 
the  year  when  the  “ Royal  ” last  visited  this  city,  the  breed, 
for  the  first  time,  had  separate  classes  given  to  it  by  the 
Society. 
Suffolk  being  the  county  in  which  there  are  most  registered 
pure-bred  flocks,  and  Essex,  Cambridge  and  Norfolk  also  having 
many,  East  Anglia  may  well  be  said  to  be  the  home  of  the 
breed.  In  Norfolk,  however,  one  might  remark  that  nowadays 
most  of  the  non-registered,  but  pure-bred  flocks  of  Suffolk 
ewes  are  used  to  breed  cross-lambs,  being  mated  with  Cotswold 
or  Lincoln  rams.  The  climate  in  the  Eastern  counties  being 
very  dry — the  average  rainfall  is  only  about  26  inches — the 
permanent  grass  covers  less  than  25  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
cultivated  area,  and  it  follows  that  sheep  are  mostly-  on  arable 
land,  for  which  this  breed  is  eminently  adapted.  Large  flocks 
are  kept  on  poor  sandy  soil  which,  in  fact,  it  would  be  impossible 
to  farm  to  a profit  without  the  “golden-hoofed”  sheep.  Along 
the  coast  and  in  West  Suffolk  are  large  tracts  of  heath-lands, 
and  on  these  Suffolk-ewe  flocks  spend  a great  part  of  the  day, 
much  to  their  benefit.  They  there  get  the  exercise  which  is 
so  conducive  to  health,  and  which  is  not  to  be  obtained  in  the 
fold  to  which  they  return  at  night.  What  is  equally  important, 
they  get  a large  part  of  their  living  off  land  where  no  other 
animals  but  rabbits  and  hares  could  exist,  for  they  are  excellent 
rangers  and  foragers. 
History  of  the  Breed. 
It  has  been  stated  by  the  late  Mr.  Ernest  Prentice,  the 
well-known  historian  of  the  breed,  in  his  Gold  Medal  article, 
published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  “ Highland  ” for  1898, 
that  “ ample  evidence  exists  as  to  the  very  general  inter- 
breeding of  the  Norfolk  ewe  and  the  Southdown  ram  during 
the  earlier  part  of  the  century.”  It  has  often  been  said  that 
these  two  breeds  are  the  progenitors  of  the  present-day  Suffolk 
sheep.  If  this  be  so,  possibly  this  excellent  breed  is  the  result 
