1884 .] 
AMEEIOA^T AGRIOQLTUEIST. 
865 
Southdown Sheep. 
The Southdown is the most popular breed of 
mutton sheep in the world. The mutton is most 
excellent, and the wool of a quality in demand by 
the manufacturers of cloth. The growth of the 
animals is rapid, so that they maybe early fattened 
either as lambs or mutton sheep, and besides they 
are quiet, hornless, hardy, and prolific. Other 
breeds surpass them 
in size, and quantity 
of wool, none in per¬ 
fection of form, or in 
excellence of flesh. So 
true is this, that no 
butcher who has cut 
well-fed Southdown 
mutton will fail to 
recognize the blood 
even though in the 
second or third cross. 
The excellence of 
form in the South- 
down is seen in its 
remarkable symmetry 
and squareness, in 
its length of body, 
breadth of loin, the 
broad hind-quarters, 
hight at the rump, 
lowness in the twist, 
and in the deep, thick 
hams. The brisket 
should be both promi¬ 
nent and deep, the 
fore-legs straight and 
wide apart, the belly- 
line level,and the flank as low as possible. The heads 
of the Southdown are small, of a gray, or brownish- 
gray color, well wooled between the eyes and across 
the poll. The wool, which should cover the belly, 
extends to the knees and hocks, and the legs are 
covered with dark, straight hair. They are natur¬ 
ally fine, but should be flat and not too delicate. 
The Southdown belongs to the class of middle- 
wool sheep. The wool is of medium length and 
fineness, close and even, and forms a fine coat and 
protection against changes of weather and climate. 
It is no doubt owing in part to this that the South- 
downs prove hardy w'herever introduced. The 
breed has been made use of to improve other 
England, and largely in this country. We see 
them, or their grades in the market, with their legs 
left with the skin on, to indicate the breed, and 
connoisseurs of mutton are thus attracted to buy. 
“Holstein” Cattle-—A Famous Cow. 
The cattle of the Netherlands are attracting 
more attention from the dairy farmers of tl:,e 
THE HOLSTEIN COW’ “ CEOWN JEW'EL.” 
country than any other breed. For many years 
they have been carefully bred, with an aim to pro¬ 
duce large quantities of milk. Doubtless the qual¬ 
ity of the milk has been less an object with the 
breeders of Holland ; but when well-fed cows give 
enormous quantities of milk, and the milk can be 
disposed of as such, the profit is almost invariably 
greater to the producer than if the quality were 
better and the quantity less. Besides, milk of low 
quality is poor in fat, but not necessarily poor in 
cheese Substance. The districts whence they come, 
have always been famous for both cheese and but¬ 
ter, so that without further evidence our farmers 
might safely assume, that the milk was really rich 
Ethelka gave eighty-one and one-half pounds of 
milk a day. These cows were neither of them four 
years old and with their second calves. 
A breed with such possibilities, even though the 
average fall far below, is one upon which too great 
care can not be spent, with a view to both pres¬ 
ervation of these inbred qualities, and to render 
them the more uniform inheritance of the race. 
The place in this country for the cows of this ad¬ 
mirable breed, is in 
the great dairy re¬ 
gions, where cheese is 
the principal product, 
for notwithstanding 
the enormous butter 
yield of some “Hol¬ 
stein ” cows, it may 
well be questioned 
whether as butter 
yielders they can be 
economically used. 
We have not yet 
begun to test cows 
for their product of 
cheese, and though it 
is certain that indi¬ 
viduals vary greatly, 
the popular idea is that 
the richness of milk 
in casein (cheese), is 
much less variable 
than its richness in 
butter. Great results, 
whether of milk or 
butter, cannot be pro¬ 
duced without abun¬ 
dant feed, and as a 
rule large breeds of cattle or horses are best 
adapted to highly fertile sections, where from 
their very birth a healthful abundance prevails. 
The grand cow, “Crown Jewel” ^2690), whoso 
portrait we reproduce from a litograph, was im¬ 
ported in September, 1882, as a five-year-old. She is 
now seven, and presumably in her prime. She is 
of the “blue blood” of Holland, at home bearing 
the name Booije, and in the Netherland herd-book 
is number 592. She won the Sweep-stakes prize as 
the best coiv of any age or breed at the Wagen- 
ingen Show, and is said to have yielded before her 
importation to this country eighty-two and one- 
third pounds of milk in one day. The voyage 
wmmmm. 
•.V-r..- V.’-.'A .Af, -r. i 
“ Down ” sheep, and these by offering lambs of 
larger size, 'which are quicker fit for market, may 
have in some eases advantage over the pure South- 
down—the first improved, aud by far the best of 
the breeds of the Downs. It would, however, be a 
mistake to suppose that the breeders of South- 
downs in England are chiefly confined to the Coun¬ 
ties of Kent and Surry, and that vicinity whence 
they sprung. They are now bred in all parts of 
m-awn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
in both butter and cheese. But we have other 
facts. The famous cow Mercedes, now dead, -n-as 
the especial rival of the Jersey cow Mary Anne of 
St. Lambert, for the honor of being the greatest 
butter cow in the world, and the no less worthy 
and scarcely less famous heifer Jamaica, is credited 
as giving oue hundred and three and one-quarter 
pounds of milk a day, and in a week as yielding 
twenty-six pounds three ounces of butter, while 
across che Atlantic is a severe tax upon the con¬ 
stitution of any cow, and a j’ear's rest is always 
needed before she gets fairly over it. During this 
year, imported cows must not only recuperate from 
the fatigues and bruises of the voyage, but en¬ 
counter a ne'w and changeable climate, of much 
greater severity of both heat and cold, than the 
one in which they were bred, and to it they must 
become not only accustomed, but acclimated. I: 
