PRICE SIX CENTS 
88.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered accordinjf to Act of Conpress. in the year 1871. by the Rural Publish inn Company, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
Somerset. They are usually met with crossed 
with the Leicester breed, and very much re¬ 
sembling them in shape, though somewhat 
larger in size and hardly so tine in general 
characters. They are without horns, and 
with clean faces and legs ; they are hardy, 
but require good pasture. At two years old, 
if well kept, they average 120 to 150 pounds 
each. The meat is juicy but, like that of all 
large sheep, inferior in quality to the smaller 
breeds. The wool produce is good; the 
fleece, averaging 7 pounds, is rather coarse iu 
quality. They are now so intermixed with 
Leicester blood as to partake more of the 
character of that breed than of the old stock: 
crosses with the Lincolnshire and with the 
Exmoor breed are also met with.” 
Mr. Darby says This description scarce¬ 
ly did justice to the improved breed as it ex 
hied twenty years since, and certainly does 
not adequately represent the marked features 
aud valuable characteristics of the Devon 
Long-Wool to be found in the best flocks at 
the present period. A well bred animal of 
this variety differs from a pure Leicester, in 
having a longer and larger face, with geater 
width at the forehead and nose, the ears 
longer. Tin* frame is more bulky, and of far 
greater length, although not quite so round 
or compact, but will be found to girt to an 
equal extent, if not more, than the Leicester. 
The Devon Long-Wool also appears higher 
than a pure-bred Leicester. In good consti¬ 
tution and hardihood the former surpasses 
the latter ; it will attain much greater weight 
of carcass and more flesh in a given time, 
and is likewise reputed to come earlier to 
maturity, 
Mr. Darby adds Wilson’s account does 
not at all servo to indicate the present re¬ 
alizations in meat and wool. The wether 
sheep arc never kept unt il two years old, be¬ 
ing fattened as hogs the first winter on tur¬ 
nips and come out in the months of March, 
April and May weighing from 22 to 24 pounds 
and in some cases 25 pounds the quarter; and 
when shorn they cut from 9 to 11 pounds of 
clean, washed wool each, although shorn as 
lambs the preceding year. This much is 
usually obtained by natural food, with very 
little, if any, assistance from oilcake or corn, 
In some instances high feeding is resorted to, 
but in those eases the hoggets ripen for the 
shambles at these weights at much earlier 
periods. The ewes are also affluent wool 
bearers, the fleeces of the best flocks averag¬ 
ing from M to 9 pounds each. The lambs cut 
from 2% to 3# pounds of wool each. In 
proof ol‘ the good weights Devon Long-Wools 
will make When fully matured, at about, a 
year and nine months old, it may be stated 
that Mi. U, Corner's three prize wether 
sheep, tha t won at the Taunton and Dunster 
Christmas markets in December, 1873, yield¬ 
ed, on being slaughtered, carcasses averaging 
168 pounds each, the heaviest being 176 
pounds. Fat ewes from his flock often aver¬ 
age 85 and sometimes 40 pounds per quarter. 
leading breeders having ceased to breed from 
the Leieesters for t wenty to thirty years 
past, preferring to breed from Devon Long- 
Wool rams, they have come to be well known 
among breeders and in the markets as Devon 
Long-wools, especially in the west of En- 
land. We have mentioned the Hampton 
sheep ; probably few of our renders have 
ever heard of them before, and, since they 
appear to have been a part of the foundation 
of these Devon Long-wools, we give Mr. 
A noerson’s description of them in the hut 
century. He says:—“They are generally 
white-faced ; the bc-.r bred more like the 
Leicestershire than any other, but larger 
boned and longer in the legs and the body, 
yet not so long as the Wiltshire:!, by which 
they have been crossed, nor so broad-backed 
as the Leieesters. A fat ewe rises to 20 lbs. 
a quarter on au average, and wethers to 80 
or 85 lbs. a quarter at two years old. 18 lbs. 
of wool have been shorn from a ram of this 
breed that was supposed to be 40 lbs. the 
quarter. The carcass is coarser than that of 
the Dorset, and the wool about 2d. per lb. 
eh caper. 
In the Royal Agricultural Society’s Jonr- 
n il, in 1855, Mr. W iLSON speaks of this Hamp¬ 
ton breed as follows:—“Like most of the 
old, indigenous breeds of the country, it has 
gradually been displaced by the improved 
breeds, and now' it is very difficult to find the 
pure Bampton unmixed with other blood, a 
few only remaining in Devonshire and West 
DEVON LONG-WOOLS, 
These sheep are popular and are carefully 
bred in Central and Eastern Devon, West 
Somerset and certain districts of Cornwall, 
England. They are said to be preferred to 
the Exmoor, Dorset, Sussex, Shropshire, 
Cotswolds and pure Leieesters. And yet 
this breed is rarely written about and scarce¬ 
ly named in America. There is said to be no 
evidence of the Soutlulowns having entered 
into this breed, though the gray faces in some 
of the flocks lead to this supposition ; but it 
is asserted the best flocks of Devon Loi*g- 
wools are derived solely from Leicester and 
Bampton — a most valuable cross in every 
respect, as a more valuable sheep has been 
created than either, being larger and more 
productive in both meat end wool than the 
former, and better shaped, smaller boned and 
of more early maturity than the latter. It 
is only during the last fifteen years that 
these sheep have been distinctively known 
as Devon Long-Wools. Twenty-five years 
ago, by reason of lloek-maHters adhering 
very closely to the Leicester type in breeding, 
the name Leicester Long- Wools was applied 
to them. But since it is found that the most 
profitable flocks are not those which have a 
near affinity'to the Leicester type, and many 
