176 
SOUTHDOWN SHEEP. 
SOUTHDOWN SHEEP. 
Among the many valuable and beautiful varieties 
of stock, imported of late years into this country, 
we would call the attention of the public to the 
Southdown sheep especially, not only as an exam¬ 
ple of great intrinsic excellence, but as an instance 
of the admirable results of selection and subsequent 
management, when accompanied by a thorough 
knowledge of the principles of breeding. 
The animal from which the present race of Im¬ 
proved South-downs originated, was small, hardy, 
and unsymmetrical; always possessing, however, 
great weight in the hind quarter, a point that in the 
whole course o.f its improved breeding has been 
jealously preserved; while much pains have been 
taken to increase the size of the fore quarter, which 
nevertheless yet weighs three or four pounds less, 
a difference not objected to by breeders of sheep, 
who think that the weight should be found in the 
most valuable parts. And here we quite agree 
with them ; we never could believe the fore quarter, 
however large and loaded with fat, so palatable or 
profitable as the hind quarter ; which seems the 
general opinion, since the former is never worth so 
much in market as the latter. The Southdown 
owes the weight of its hind quarter to the full, 
round form of the leg, which thus furnishes a large 
ham peculiarly adapted to smoking or drying, like 
venison, to which it is scarcely inferior; while the 
sweet, juicy meat, short-grained and well marbled, 
gives the mutton a just claim to the high reputation 
it has obtained in market. Unlike many varieties 
it has much lean and little outside fat. As is gene¬ 
rally the case with animals of this character, they 
give a great deal of profitable meat for their ap¬ 
pearance, and the butcher is rarely disappointed in 
their proof, while the proportion of offal is small. 
The Southdown, after a series of judicious breed¬ 
ing, attained a degree of symmetry and compact¬ 
ness, which the foregoing portrait will serve to il¬ 
lustrate, being a fair specimen of the improved 
breed. 
The points of Fig. 35 may be briefly enumerated 
as follows: A fine, clean head; eye bright, with 
the orbit not too prominent • short neck; straight 
back ; ribs springing high and bowing ; wide loin ; 
tail set on well up ; long from hips to rump ; very 
deep in the flank; full twist; round, projecting 
brisket; forelegs standing perpendicularly under the 
body ; sound hoofs and well woolled 
on the belly and thighs. 
Such were the sheep, as bred by 
the late John Elman, of Glynd, Sus¬ 
sex, one of the first and most success¬ 
ful improvers of the Southdowns; and 
such are the sheep now kept by his 
son, the present J. Elman, on the 
same estate. From this source have 
sprung most of the improved breed, 
which were distributed over England 
by annual drafts from Mr. E.’s flock ; 
and though many are now breeders 
and exhibitors of this variety, and 
have attained as such, great eminence, 
yet we believe they will readily ac¬ 
knowledge their indebtedness to the 
Glynd flock, for their earlier materials. 
A striking and valuable character¬ 
istic of the Southdown breed, is their 
great power of endurance; a quality 
which their native hills are well cal¬ 
culated to test. These consist of 
large tracts of uninclosed land, in 
Sussex and the adjoining counties, 
whose altitude and hilly surface, to¬ 
gether with the thin chalky soil, 
covered with scanty but sweet herb- 
J age, render it only fit as pasturage for sheep of the 
j hardiest habits. Here large flocks of the South- 
j downs, attended by shepherds and their dogs, are 
; fed; often being driven several miles to and from 
i their pasture, whose barrenness obliging them to 
1 feed over a large extent of ground, requires an 
amount of travel few sheep would endure ; while 
they not only live, but thrive on pasturage so poor, 
that they little fear the encroachment of any other 
of the improved breeds. They have been tried 
. successfully on the high, bleak mountains of Wales, 
; where their industry and vigorous constitutions 
\ have enabled them to equal in endurance, at the 
! same time that they far surpassed in symmetry, the 
1 goat-like breed of that country. 
But this power of enduring poor fare, does not 
unfit the Southdowns for better quarters; unlike 
most of the world they bear prosperity well. We 
find them in the fertile county of Cambridge, in the 
fold of Mr. Webb, with crosses of the blood of the 
Glynd flock, attaining the weight of forty pounds 
per quarter and above, and bearing away the prizes 
of the Royal Agricultural Society from all England. 
Thus we see them on the rich meadows of the low¬ 
lands, producing more wool, acquiring even ear¬ 
lier maturity, and reaching a larger size than upon 
the Downs, where they seldom exceed thirty pounds 
per quarter ; a proof that individual size greatly de¬ 
pends upon the quantity and quality of food, or in 
other words upon the strength of the land on which 
the animal is fed. The strong constitution of this 
