BRITISH SHEEP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21136, 19 March 1932, Page 20

BRITISH SHEEP.

CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS. According to the British Ministry of Agriculture, the following are some of the principal characteristics which distinguish most breeds of British sheep:— 1. A graceful carriage and springy style of walking. 2. A characteristic head with good depth and strength of jaw, and breadth uooss the bridge of the nose, and full bright eyes, indicating both docility and courage. 3. The neck thick toward the trunk, tapering to the head, arching slightly, and not too short. 4. The fchest broad, deep, and projecting well over the forelegs, and descending from the neck in a perpendicular line. 5. The back broad behind and before, with a uniform covering of flesh, not boggy, but to the touch firm and muscular; under and upper line straight. 6. The ribs well sprung, rounded, and deep. 7. Tho shoulders well laid and covered with firm flesh. The regions immediately behind the shoulders filled up. 8. The thighs and gigofs and also the arms and the fore flanks fleshed well down. 9. The rump or part near the dock well developed, though not too large, as is sometimes the case in Cotswolds, Border Leicesters, and other heavilyfleshed breeds. 10. The quarters long and not drooping behind, and the spaces between them and the last' ribs short. 11 The !"gs straight and well set apart., not too long; the bone clean and fine, and neither coarse nor deficient; the hocks are much better slightly out than at, all in—or " cow-hocked." 12. The characteristic, wool of the special breed covering well the body, and part.icularlv the belly, also the scrotum of the. ram.