65 
S hr op shire S heep . 
would be about 20 to 22 lbs. per quarter and a good Hock would 
average 6 8 lbs. fleece. Their original mountain-breeding 
has stamped them with a remarkable hardihood of constitution. 
They will thrive and do well on land of a sterile nature while 
in more generous districts the rapidity of their growth and 
their natural tendency to fatten are most extraordinary. 
Thickly depastured in the undulating districts of their native 
county they are ever a source of ready profit to their owners, 
who, beginning now to generally understand their superiority', 
tend them with the greatest skill, care and management! 
Hence this sheep, hitherto so little known, is now taking its 
proper place and the few real Shropshire breeders who have 
been so indefatigable and untiring in their efforts to produce a 
perfect animal have at length been rewarded by obtaining for 
them a name and first class position amongst the sheep of this 
country. They possess to a singular degree the quality and 
symmetry which have made the Southdown so famous, but are 
much larger in scale, earlier at maturity and heavier in their 
wool-cutting properties. They cannot compete with the 
Hampshire Downs for size, but when weighed against their 
larger antagonists the compact and well-developed points of the 
Shiopshiie render the apparent disparity in size amply com- 
pensated for by the actual weight, while in fineness of quality 
they are very far their superiors.” 
It will be remembered that at the 1857 Royal meeting the 
Hampshire Down No. 722 took the first special prize awarded to 
its class, and being eligible to compete also in the class “ Short- 
woolled sheep other than Southdown,” was shown against 
the Shropshires and with the others exhibited was defeated by 
IMessis. Adney and JMeire, two well-known county breeders 
of Shropshire sheep, who carried off two firsts and one second 
prize from this class. Mr. Adney’s first prize shearling ram was 
aftei wards let for the season to the Earl of Aylesford for 
65 guineas. 
From these parent stocks has evolved the modern Shropshire, 
but there are no reliable records as to how the improvement in 
size, in uniformity of character, and in the value and weight 
of the fleece was effected. In the early days, some historians 
say the Southdown ram was introduced for this purpose, whilst 
others equally well qualified to express an opinion assert that 
the present uniformity of character and perfection of form is 
the result of selection from home-bred sheep of the best type. 
Speaking from personal knowledge far back into the last 
century, I am in a position to assert that no one who has 
achieved any success as a breeder or exhibitor has deviated 
from a line of pure breeding for the last sixty to seventy 
years. 
YOL. 74. 
D 
