VARIETIES OF BRITISH SHEEP.

Press, Volume XXXI, Issue 4287, 26 April 1879, Page 1 (Supplement)

VARIETIES OF BRITISH SHEEP.

Sheep.may be.divided into three classes — wbolsV. short) wools, and mori_tain sheep. •'■ ' :i •"-- '-''-y- ; ■■■-■•■•»••'• -■* | 1. Long wools—Lincoln sheep. : .Foremost among the longVvvodl* stands the Lincoln, on account of the g-eat weight and the lustrous character oi its fleeoe. , '. The; large number of aheVp kept in the county from which this bread derives its-name are, with few exception?,'entirely of this breed, and many are also kept in' all the adjoining counties. On the'dty sands of Lincoln Heath and Wold, thefie sheep thrive admirably, receiving often in"the. snmnier and, autumn somewhat; dry aridWcahty'. pasturage ori clover or stuobleey but in the winter being folded on turnips, wit- linseed cake arid other dry foddery The, native sheep of th* district were originally crossed with the Leicester, and have been greatly improved. While weight and quality of wool have been increased, weight of carcass, symmetry, aptitude to fatten, and early maturity have also beenimproved. A large ; number of very fine fat sheep ia the wool, ' one year old, are annually sold in April at Lincoln and other fairsin the county. Lin- : coin wool is of very long, staple, arid often curly, parting down the 'back. Some of it ! has a glossiness which is hiuoh prized, as it is retained, when it is manufactured into various fabrics. Instances of a fleece weighing as much as thirty pounds are not want;ing;, and ram hog fleeces in a flock often average fourteen or fifteen pounds each. The fices arid legs are always white. ■'■ t I - The Cotswolds—perhaps the largest British, breed of sheep, originally springing from the, neighbourhood of the .Cotswood hiibj^ r have : been cultivated with care improved in quality. ; They are for the most part con* fined to their native district; but soma are kept in Norfolk, and the rams of this breed are of tm used with ewes of other breeds to increase the Size of the produce, and to breed cross-bred -heep for fattening. Cjotewold sheep large, handsome well covered with flesh, and a great propensity to' fatten, They handle soft, and tho mutton is rather coarse-grained, Th>y have the ;head covered with, a tuft of wooL The j;majority of tf*e sfcee^ b&ye wßite fooea aijd

legs, though some pure bred sheeTT-T raottle-face i. * *"» The Leicester breed of aheap has w cultivated more than a hundred yeara--tt name of Bakewell being very famous iifomr naotion with this bread in tho last centnrv* Enormous prices were then paid fer the no chase or hire of the rama from hia flock. Th * Leicoster ahoep is of moderate siza, withnsa* frame, a good fleece of wool, Tory firT mutton, and a great{aptitudo to fatten. Th mutton has, however, too largo a proportion of fat, and is, therefore, not so saleable as the mutton of some other breeds. The prjof of fat for tallow now rules very low—W than half the price that was formerly pu£_. while prime mvtton, not over fat, ia ratten dearer than formerly. It is, therefore, now meet profitable to breed sheep which hare a good proportion of lean flesh. The wire bred Leicester, possibly from e'oss jn. h-eeding, is now somewhat small aad dalfc cate looking. The head la small, and often bare, the face white, the nose vary narrow Leicester* havo baen very useful for im! proving coarser breeds ef sheep; and many of the local breeds of white-faced sheep have a good dash of Leicester in their compel, tion, are very profitable sheep in thalr snaciaj districts.

Miscellaneous breeds.—Tht Teeawater,t_e Border Leicester (a much larger white-faced sheep, the raoat noted brooders of whioh in the JS'orth obtain enormous prion for their rams), the Derbyshire I_mastone sheep, and the Devon long wools have most of them a heavy fleece, tolerable symmetry n u _ tude to fatten, and much more nize and oon. stitution than the pure Leicester, from which they are partially derived. The Kent or Remney Marsh sheep are hardly local breed, with a good growth of long, rather fine wool, rather unlevel frames, *ni faces resembling the Cheviot.

The Cheviot is a very useful whltefseed sheep, bred in the hilly and upland districts in Scotland and the North of England,where the pasturage is moderately good. The ewes are remarkably good sticklers. When thrsa years old, they are generally sold from thsir breeding districts, and are purchased foi grass farms for breeding, by a Leicester nun one orop of lambs, for sale to the nuteher either aa fat lambs er yearlings, tka ewei themselves being fattened after reari_g'th«_ lambs, ffheviots have not a heavy fleece. Their mutton is excellent, and the first eroti Cheviot and Leicester is especially good fpr fetteni-g.

The Dorset hirned sheep, a white-faced but scarcely a long-woollad brcsd, is especially useful for breeding lambs for fattening as house lambs in the winter for the London market. The ewes will sometimes rear two crops of lambs in one year.

2. Short wools—Black, brown, orfgrey. faced sheep are usually classed ai short wools, theughsome of them, as the Shrop* shires and Oxford Downs, cut a good fleece of wool of long staple. ;

— .The Southdown is a brown or grey.facad sheep, rather small, but very true in form, with very close, fine wool, and mutton of the finest quality. Southdowns are largely kept in the dry cliimate of the south and south-east of England, and thrive well on s,he close-cropped herbage of tho downs,,furnishing the highest priced mutton for the London market. Removed to the solder and moister climate of the midlands or the north, they thrive badly, and ultimately change their type.

. The Hampshire Downs are much larger sheep, with more bone, short wool, 1 lengthy frames, black faces, and often long Roman nos?s. They are well adapted for folding on the light, arable farms of Hampshire, and the wether lambs are Bold fat at from ten to fourteen months old, weighing eighty pounds to the carcass. '

The Oxford Downs are » fine, breed ol ' sheep like the Shropshlres, ot convpw&tiyely modern introduction. They were originally produced from a cross of the Cotswolds with Hampshire Downs. They have been carefully bred as a distinct breed for more fthan thirty years. |rhay have largo, handsome frames, like the Cotswolds, but with a black or*grey face, closer wool, and firmer mutton. They are largely kept in Oxford, Bedford, Beds, and adjoining counties. The ewss are. moderately prolific, and the young sheep fatten to a good weight at twelve to fifteen months old.

The Shrbpshires—moro probably than any other' breed—aro being kept in increasing numbers over a wide district. Like Short* horn cattle, they seem to possess the faculty of thriving in varied circumstances of soil and climate, They occupy, to the exclusion of other breeds, continually extending areas, of which t Shrewsbury, Stafford, and, Birmingham are centres. They are also kept ia many other counties of England, and there "are some. good flocks fc_ Ireland. With a good fleece of fine thick-set wool, and a wellcovered head, a, carcass lori£, wide, and deep, with plenty of lean flesh, they have robust, ness of constitution, and aptitude to fatten, The ewes are good Bucklers, and very prO« Hfic, one hundred ewes not --frequently rearing one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty lambs. The color sf the face and legs is black or grey.

3. Among the mountain sheep may be irie-tioned tho Hardwicks, a large, hardy, horned sheep, the Black-faced Scotch,! the Louk, and the small Welch sheep, wfimhare very hardy, and have excellent mutton whan well fatted,, but are so small as to leave little profit to the feeder. Most of these sheep are bred in rather wild district* and require but little attention, a shepherd ana his dog looking after five or six hundred ot them." They graze on the heather sad rougo mountain grass, getting no extra food «*J cept in severe weather. The wetbsrs untt draft ewes, when of mature age, are seidto he fattened in better pastures. The mutton of all these mountain breeds is excellenti when well fatted,—" Gardeners' Gazette i 8"*): ■ "•■ ■•'■ ''' ■ ]'■*"■''