75 
Shropshire Sheep. 
of style, the face and legs should be a nice soft black (not 
sooty), the head should be nicely covered, and the wool 
generally should be tine, of great density and length of staple. 
The skin should be nice cherry colour and the belly and 
scrotum (in the males) should be well wooled. 
Objections . — Horns in ram, speckled face, ears or legs, long 
heavy ears, thin open wool. 
In all breeds there are more or less two types, and it is to a 
certain extent the case with Shropshire sheep. Some favour 
the short-legged, symmetrical, deep, lean-fleshed sheep, covered 
with a dense heavy fleece, while others prefer the longer-legged 
animal with more size, and open, soft wool, and possibly a little 
more bone. Personally I have always considered the Shropshire 
sheep as a medium-sized sheep of good quality with a robust 
constitution, maturing early at small cost, admirably adapted as 
a general purpose sheep. What I wrote some years ago I again 
repeat, and it fully expresses my views on medium versus 
large sheep. Some farmers prefer a big, coarse sheep on long 
legs, but I am quite convinced of this, that the most rent-paying 
class is the moderate-sized sheep of good quality, because the 
butchers can sell them the more readily and at better prices, and 
a greater weight per acre can be raised than where the larger 
and coarser sheep is resorted ' to, for 100 ewes in the former 
instance require as much land for their support as 130-140 well 
bred moderate sized ewes. 
Men are too apt to look at the price per head of their teg 
sheep rather than the return per acre of mutton, and the better 
prices obtained for moderate-weighted sheep as compared with 
those which dress 70-90 lb. 
To Shropshire breeders will belong the credit for all time 
of having founded the first Flock-Book ever published in this 
or any country. In the autumn of 1882 a meeting was called 
of the leading Shropshire breeders who formed themselves into 
the Shropshire Sheep-Breeders and Flock-Book Society. The 
first volume was published in 1883 and since then a volume has 
appeared annually, the last being No. 31. 
The Flock-Book Society has done much to encourage 
breeders and disseminate knowledge abroad of the valuable 
attributes of the breed, and to this source alone much of the 
extraordinary demand of the last twenty-five years can be 
traced. 
Alfred Mansell. 
College Hill, 
Shrewsbury. 
