THE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF SHEEP BREEDS 2. The Breeds of Great Britain

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 79, Issue 3, 15 September 1949, Page 227

THE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF SHEEP BREEDS 2. The Breeds of Great Britain

By

I. S. MILLER,

Sheep and Wool Instructor,

Department of Agriculture, Christchurch.

THOUGH the Merino formed the basis of New -s- Zealand’s sheep and wool industry, a number of the British breeds of sheep have changed the face of the industry in the past 100 years. In considering their development in Britain, sheep must be regarded as producers of wool rather than of meat, as the rise of Britain’s commercial prosperity was based on her wool trade.

IN the House of Lords the Lord Chancellor takes his seat on the-Woolsack reminder that the sheep was already an important animal in the manorial farming of medieval England. The keeping of sheep for wool was the earliest form of large-scale commercialised farming, and wool was the main basis of Britain’s early export trade. All through the 16th century there was loud outcry about the enclosure of farms to form sheep walks, and the sheep came to be regarded as the greatest enemy of the small farmer and of the labourer in husbandry. In the later 18th century the sheep brought about economic revolution in the Scottish highlands and drove the people into the cities and overseas. However, there is a credit side to the account: The “golden hoof” has turned many a stretch of barren heath or down land into arable fields which have grown vast quantities of corn and have paid wages to many poor men. Great Britain’s sheep population during the past 80 years has fluctuated between 20 and 29 millions, but from 1885 to 1910 it always exceeded 25 millions. A rapid fall occurred during and just after the First World War. From 1923 numbers increased to 24 millions in 1939, but during the Second World War they decreased by more than 6 millions. This was a loss of nearly 25 per cent, on the 1939 figure, but by 1946 numbers were up to 20.4 millions again. The position was made worse by the storm losses of early 1946, and by June of that year the sheep population had declined to 16.7 millions, compared with nearly 27 millions in 1938. A recovery of some 2 millions was made by 1948, but this represents little more than the rebuilding of the hill flocks after the blizzards.

The first domesticated sheep are believed to have reached Britain with the Celtic tribes in the 6th or 7th century B.C. Whether there were sheep indigenous to the country is not known. However, these sheep (and for the purpose of this article they may be called “native” sheep) were “scruffy little animals.” The Romans probably took to Britain from southern Europe larger sheep with better fleeces to improve the native flocks.

From Roman to Norman Occupation

When the Roman invaders landed in Britain 2000 years ago they found that the people of those islands could already dress, spin, and dye wool. Throughout their settlement and development of the country they encouraged the production and manufacture of woollen materials, as the climate made possible the production of a good-quality wool for the production of high-class material which was exported to Rome.

After the conclusion of the Roman occupation of Britain came a period when improvement was not maintained, though the more settled conditions which followed the Norman conquest enabled sheep breeding and wool manufacture again to make great headway, the centre of manufacture being Winchester. * According to William Youatt, in the early days of the Norman kings a differentiation was made in wool types. Short, fine wools were used for the manufacturing of broad cloths, while the long wools were made into hosiery and woollen goods. The value of both types of British sheep was then understood and acknowledged.

The Middle Ages

Throughout the Middle Ages England gained considerable commercial prosperity as a producer and exporter of wool to many European countries. From the 12th century

on England began to develop woollen manufacture, and for a long time the export of raw wool was prohibited. Flemish weavers were encouraged to settle in the country to teach and practise their art, and in three areas, East Anglia, certain western counties, and Yorkshire, the manufacture of woollen goods was of enormous importance. Doubtless many of the monastries which kept sheep on a large scale throughout the Middle Ages succeeded in bringing about improvements in sheep husbandry as in other phases of agriculture. “The multitude of sheep yield such fine wool, and so white, that it is coveted not only in other parts of this nation, but in foreign countries; but the inhabitants are so wise that they make such improvements m their wool that the sheep may be said to bear Golden Fleeces. ...” (Quoted in “Great Farmers” by Professor J. A. Scott Watson and May Elliot Hobbs.) From early “ times it appears that there were shortwoolled and long-woolled sheep, with many nondescript types of more or less local characteristics. Under Edward 111 in the early 13th century mention was first made of the wool staplers, a name applied to a class of middlemen who bought directly from the grower at the farm or the nearest town, arranged the wool according to quality, and sold it to home manufacturers or foreign merchants. Sheep numbers increased greatly in Britain throughout the 14th century as a result of the prosperity of the home manufacturer, and the supply of wool became greater than the home market could dispose of. The prohibition against exportation was then removed. Further, early in the 14th century the art of spinning, worsted yarn, which appears to have originated at Norwich, made much progress and eventually the yarn was exported in large quantities. Worsted manufacture then spread throughout the country.

Change in Fashions and Fabrics

From about 1400 on, wrote Youatt, as a result of a change of demand in wools, Spanish wools became more sought after; fashions and the nature of fabrics changed. As a result it seems the character of the sheep probably changed, too, in France, the Netherlands, and England. The Romney Marsh, the Lincoln, and the Leicester began to be developed, and the older fine-woolled sheep were abandoned to a large extent because they could not compete with the celebrated Spanish Merino in fine-wool production.

The long-wools were still decidedly superior to those of foreign origin, so attempts were made to export not only the fleece but the sheep. This threatened to improve foreign flocks at the expense of Britain, so Henry VI made laws to prohibit this export. Later, Queen Elizabeth enforced the prohibition more rigorously still. During the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, because of the distractions of religious dissension, lack of care in production and manufacture resulted in a deterioration of the quality of wool, while it seems that some of the old breeds of fine-woolled sheep vanished. Toward the end of Henry VIII’s reign and during that of Queen Elizabeth attention was again given to the breeding of sheep and the manufacture of wool, and the export of fleece and fabrics increased tremendously. However, throughout the reign of the Stuarts wool manufacture fell on evil days, partly because of the prohibition on export and partly because of civil war. Countries on the Continent, ineluding France, benefited by this and their manufacture and trade flourished, From the end of the 17th century the staple trade of England flourished and

a greater number of sheep were bred. The estimates in the table on this page were quoted by Youatt as being the results of various investigations by the authorities mentioned. These figures, though not accurate, are reasonable approximations. New System of Husbandry As population and commerce increased it was necessary that material for manufacture and food for workmen should increase proportionately, and so the 12,000,000 sheep of 1698, yielding one sort of food and material, had increased to 32,000,000 in 1834. There was a limit to this form of increase, however, and therefore a new system of husbandry arose—turnip husbandry, which enabled twice and sometimes thrice the number of sheep to be carried. How this came about is interesting. Up to the 18th century the British regarded sheep as animals kept to pro-

duce wool, though ewes’ milk and cheese were important as by-products of the sheep industry. Sheep in those days were not rated highly as flesh producers, and rightly so. However, apart from wool, sheep had another important function in the medieval agriculture of Britainthe maintenance of soil fertility on arable land. . Under the village farm system there were unfenced areas of tillage land cropped on three-course rotation—wheat or rye (winter corn), barley or pulses (spring sown), and then a fallow. By day the sheep of each village would go to the common grazings tended by the village shepherd, returning each night to be penned on the arable land. During summer they were penned at night on the uncropped fallow area, and in winter they used the stubble land until the spring-corn area was required for planting. Each owner provided fodder (such as straw and pea haulm) and material for fold or pen. In view of the large numbers of sheep kept in those days and the fact that no specific crops were grown for them they must have suffered appalling privation. Many allusions to heavy losses. in sheep are made by

early writers on agriculture. Sheep were sacrificed to the land to improve its cropping power through treading and manuring, bringing on to cropped land fertility from the common grazings which were not ploughed, r'L = • \A/««I k -' nan 9 e in type or wool . The 18th century brought a new outlook on the place of the sheep in the economy. , With the rapid development °f the industrial age came a rapid mcrease m population and an increased demand for food; a sharp fall in infantile, mortality .. was the greatest single factor in this increase. In the same century occurred remarkable developments m farming practice ana rotational cropping, using turnips and clover, which enabled farmers to develop sheep to produce flesh as well as with this trend was connected the possibility of maturing sheep earlier and fattening them to a greater extent than before or mcreasthe slze of the breed. A larger breed was preferred and developed almost everywhere. At this stage a new situation arose which did not receive much attention:

BRITAIN’S SHEEP POPULATION AND PRODUCTS Estimate of Value of Value of Authority Year sheep numbers fleece (£) manufactures (£) Gregory King 1698 12,000,000 2,000,000 8,000,000 Gregory Kingl74l 16,640,000 2,780,000 8,340,000 Arthur Young l774 25,589,754 4,264,959 12,795,877 Luccock 1800 26,148,463 6,000,000 17,500,000 (Luccock estimated a total clip of 83,040,0001 b., being 346,000 packs of 2401 b. each.) Goodman and Hubbard .. 1828 26,148,463 (Goodman and Hubbard estimated about the same number of sheep as Luccock, but corrected his figures for the weight of the wool clip because of the Increased fleece —384,000 packs, including skin and slaughtered wools.) Professor McCullock .. • .. 1834 32,000,000 7,000,000 21,000,000 Youatt (1834) disagreed with McCullock’s estimate of the value of British wool manufacture. This is how he based his estimate:— . £ 108,000,0001 b. of English wool at Is. 3d. per lb. 6,750,000 46,535, of imported wool at 2s. 6d. per lb. 5,816,904 12,566,904 Wages of 350,000 persons at £25 each .. .. 8,750,000 Wool dyes, oils, and other raw materials .. 1,450,000 Wear and tear of sunken capital, profits, etc. .. 4,250,000 Total value of manufactured articles .. .. 27,016,904

If the carcass increased in weight, so did the fleece; the staple was longer and the fibre coarser. The manufacturer was the first to notice the change, but the farmer had not expected it, nor, apparently, would he believe that it was taking place in his own flock. It was left to the consumer to decide the question. Goods which at one time were sold readily were not disposed of. The buyer asked for cloth of Spanish wool only, and so for clothing purposes English wools receded in value. What was once a carding wool was becoming a combing wool, but was still of value for a different purpose. The wool had not deteriorated, but the type had changed, and Down-type wools had become modified too.

Influence of Merino

This tendency, which also occurred in almost every other European country, gave prominence to Spanish Merino wool—a type finer than British wool had ever been and yet which had never been sufficiently appreciated in Great Britain. To this influence was added that of fashion and of an increased demand from people who had made fortunes in industry and wished for fine clothing, resulting in a demand for a finer cloth than that to which people had been accustomed.

Youatt wrote that from an importation of 3,000,0001 b. of Merino wool before 1800 it increased to 8,000,000 to 9,000,0001 b. Then Saxony Merino wool of still higher quality was marketed, and importations rose further to 36,000,0001 b. The British sheep owner suffered at first, but by 1836 all wool was in demand for some purpose or other and at a remunerative price to the grower.

Distribution of Sheep Population

There are no reliable records of the sheep population of Britain during the later Middle Ages, but areas once thickly populated with sheep now carry a sparse population, though there are now vast numbers of sheep in areas where they were once rare. There are several reasons for this: —

The progress of industrialisation and urbanisation had a profound effect in lowering the density of the sheep population.

Land such as in the Fen district and in Bedfordshire is more suitable for intensive arable farming, while Cheshire, Somerset, and Wiltshire carry a dense stock of dairy cows. All areas of high elevation are suited only to sheep grazing, and areas used predominantly for beef cattle also carry numerous sheep.

However, there are still .further reasons. During the past 200 years the increase in the world’s sheep population and the shift of a large proportion of this population from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere with the opening up and development of new sheep-raising countries resulted in the availability of new supplies of wool, mutton, and lamb from these sources. In the face of this competition the British farmers were paid less for their sheep products, and where possible they tended toward other forms of farm production. All these factors had their influence in altering the distribution and concentration of sheep in Britain.

Group A—Mountain and Hill Breeds Important Scotch Blackface x Local importance only ( Swaledale I , , . Local importance only ■{ Rough Fell ( Lonk I Breeds of the Pennine Not important | Derbyshire Gritstone f Range tt- , n 4.- . ! Limestone Virtually extinct } Pen i st one / Important Herdwick Lake District Important Cheviot Important Welsh Mountain Local importance only Exmoor Horn Important only in the Shetlands Shetland Group B—lntermediate Breeds which Link Group A with Group C Kerry Hill (Wales) , Clun Forest [ Breeds of the English-Welsh border Radnor Forest ■ I. Group CThe Short-woolled Breeds White-faced sheep with horns { or Western White-faced sheep without horns j Closewool Southdown Shropshire Dark-faced sheep without horns— J Suffolk Down breeds ] Dorset Down Hampshire Down A Oxford Down The last-named is larger and longer in the fleece, thus forming a link with Group D—The Long-woolled Breeds Leicester Cotswold Improved Dartmoor Border Leicester Kent or Romney Marsh Roscommon (native Lincoln Longwool Devon Longwool long-woolled breed of Wensleydale South Devon Ireland)

Multiplicity of Breeds • _ .. . ... . .Even so, Britain maintains a greater sheep population than any other country in western Europe, and one of the principal reasons for this is the existence of much land in Britain which is more suited to sheep farming than to any other kind of agriculture. The history of Britain’s development as a country of great commercial prosperity was linked with that of her wool trade. Now from the standpoint of its sheep breeds Britain is a museum. Though Merino types, which predominate in the world’s sheep stock, have never gained a permanent foothold there, between 30 and 40 breeds are recognised in Great Britain. In addition there is an unaccountable assortment of crossbred sheep, certain types of which are of great commercial importance, but in some districts there exist many sheep whch as Thomas in his work “Sheep” says “mongrel” would be a mild description. Why so many breeds in such a small country? . . ' , , . ~ First, because sheep can adapt themselves to an extraordinary range of environment Great Britain is small, . but has great variations of elevation, climate, soil / types, and herbage influence the growth and deo2^T o a a innno/liml woSl % i e ZSjrtSiL? ™ HiXwn writers on British sheep more than a century ago. A second reason for the wide range of breed types is that for more than

1000 years sheep were the most important livestock of Britain, and for 150 years men of individuality and keen judgment have developed recognised breeds from local types by cross-breed-ing and careful selection. „ . . ~ . . . Probably yet another reason is that 01 1 3 very long time Britain was notorious for the parochialism of her y illa S. e communities; that spirit would tend to isolate local breed types. The standard publication of the British Ministry of Agriculture, “British Breeds of Livestock,” makes no reference to the relative numerical importance pf breeds, but a census of production taken in 1908 showed that four British breeds made up nearly half the total sheep stock. The task of classifying the breeds is of necessity difficult, but the classification suggested in “Sheep,” by Thomas and others, is given above. This is rather a formidable list. Other local types have almost breed status, and some on the list given are now of very minor importance. The story of the development of British sheep breeds during the past 200 years makes complicated reading, but in the following notes only the more important breeds are discussed. Mountain and Hill Breeds The whole sheep industry of Scotland an the north of England is based on the two mountain breeds, the Cheviot and the Scotch Blackface, with various crosses superimposed on them, but each of these breeds has its sphere of influence. The Cheviot is a breed eloped for grazing “green” or more grassy hill land, as distinct from the Blackface, which was developed for “black” or heather land.

Cheviot and Blackface

The Cheviot’s earliest known home was the border hills, but the Blackface probably originated in the Pennine region, where its relatives such as the Swaledale and the Lonk still live. The breed was well established in the southern uplands of Scotland as far back as the 15th century. Its invasion of the highlands is of much more recent date.

As a breed the Cheviot is good to look at, with a distinctive appearance, but it is not a good breed for wettish, lowland pastures. Other hill breeds are better adapted to withstand highrainfall conditions. In Britain’s eyes the Cheviot produces a good type : of wool for a hill breed. Cheviot wool is naturally more soft and fine than Blackface wool and thus lent itself to improvement, becoming the raw material of the famous tweed industry of the Scottish borders. On the other hand, attempts to improve : the long, coarse-textured fleece of the Blackface have resulted in a fleece lacking in protection in the rigorous conditions of its mountain country.

Apparently there was plenty of exchange of blood under the conditions prevailing along the border until the time of the union, and the breeds must have been mixed freely. Robson, of Belford and Bowmont Water, who was the first great improver of Cheviots, undoubtedly brought some sheep from the south. He is said to have used a ram from Bakewell, but his grandson held that after extensive travelling in England he bought several rams of a breed then existing in Lincolnshire. Robson’s work gave the Cheviot a better carcass and an increase of 20 per cent, in fleece weight without loss of hardiness. This early gain of the Cheviots pushed the Blackface back to the highest and poorest land.

However, because of its hardiness and thriftiness the Blackface holds its own and apparently - will continue to do so over a vast area such as the heather-clad hills of Scotland and the Pennine chain, on Dartmoor, and even on the Cornish moors. Men responsible for the early improvement of the Scotch Blackface were Gillespie of Douglas Mill, Charles Howatson of GlenbUck, and the Archibalds of Overshiels farming in Upper Lanarkshire and the inland part of Ayrshire. The enclosure of the common ■ land, which created much opposition in the Cotswolds in the 16th century, was repeated in the highlands between 1770 and 1840.

The forming of large sheep farms created a vast amount of human misery, equalled only by that caused by the industrialists of the new factories in the north of England.

The Blackface breed was the immediate instrument of this policy, advancing from the southern uplands to the southern and central highlands. The foreigners were more or less welcomed in the southern highlands about 1760, but in the north with their alien shepherds they were hated as the enemies of the old highland way of life. They had reached Caithness by the end of the 18th century, and when a disastrous outbreak of disease occurred among the goats and the little old soft-woolled Kerry . sheep of the northernmost county in 1806-07 the Blackfaces were left supreme. The rival Cheviots were not far behind with such champions as Sir John Sinclair, who by 1802 had 3000 of these ewes on his estate at Langwell, in Caithness. Rising prices for finer qualities of wool after 1800 helped their campaign. ' . The displacement of the crofters to new villages by the sea or abroad to the colonies was completed by the

capitalist farmers from the neighbourhood of Northumberland moving in with their thousands of sheep, complete with shepherds and dogs. Professor Scott Watson gives some idea of the ■ magnitude : of the emigration when he says that one of these men, Reed, alone held a run in the Strath of Helmsdale which was 18 miles long by 8 miles at its widest, grazing more than 18,000 sheep. Herdwick

The origin of the Herdwick, the breed of the Lake District and of considerable numerical importance, is obscured in romance. The legend of 40 scraggy Merinos struggling ashore from a wreck of the Spanish Armada on the coast of Drigg can, it seems, be discounted. More probably they are the descendants of some Scottish sheep taken off a wreck on the Cumberland coast in the early 18th century and acquired by the farmers of Wastdalehead. Their ' owners regarded them with almost superstitious awe and formed themselves into an association' with the main object, apparently, of keeping the Herdwick to themselves.

It is one of the most hardy and thrifty types in Britain. It is not akin to the Blackface breeds, though its

fleece is very coarse textured. Some rams are horned and some polled. The outstanding feature of the breed is the change in face and leg colour from the dark of the lamb to grey and then with age to white.

Welsh Mountain

The modern taste for a small, finegrained, lean joint in mutton and lamb has brought the Welsh Mountain breed more into prominence. This is the smallest British breed, descended from early types indigenous to the country —the original tan-faced, short- and dense-woolled Celtic sheep—and was long thought hardly worth improvement.

Wales has much , high land on which the rainfall is heavy and the poorquality herbage will support only a thrifty breed of sheep. Because of its suitability for this type of hill country, Thomas ranks the Welsh Mountain as of first-class importance and value. The Cheviot is polled in both sexes, but the Welsh Mountain rams are strongly horned. . The breed, would have a wider distribution in England but for one unfortunate disadvantage for the lowlander —its . tendency either to burrow through poor fences or to take them in its stride.

Only in recent times have systematic efforts been made with the aid of science to fine down the wool while ridding the fleece of undesirable kemp fibres and still retaining a fleece that will keep the newly-born lamb warm and dry. To improve the fleshing of the breed while retaining its hardiness and thrift on the scant herbage is another aim. This is no easy task, and it seems that improvement of the hill pastures must accompany flock improvement.

Intermediate Breeds

For the purpose of this classification the group of intermediate breeds represents a transition stage between breeds developed for and kept on the highest land and the lowland breeds, short and long woolled. It appears that more could have been achieved in flock improvement in this limited area if breeders had concentrated on the development of only one breed. As it is, none of these three breeds—Kerry Hill, Clun Forest, and Radnor Forest—is of great importance.

Short-woolled Breeds

The majority of the short-woolled breeds are associated with lowland farming systems or arable farming on

light-soil uplands of chalk and limestone. Of this group only the six Down breeds have something in common except shortness of staple.

Dorset Horn

The old Dorset Horn breed represents the nearest approach so far to the production of a crop of lambs twice a year. The Dorset Horn will breed earlier in . the year than any other type in Britain, for the ewes take the ram in May (late spring), lambing in October (late autumn). Thus, Dorset Horn flocks are lambing when most English flocks are being mated, and so provide fat lambs from December onward. The ewe also will produce lambs at shorter intervals than a year.

' The Dorset Horn is a breed of great antiquity, but as, far as is known it has not been subjected to infusions of other blood, Leicester, Southdown, or Merino. It is distinct from other British breeds in that its lips and nostrils are flesh coloured, not black. The wool is very white. It is not a breed for a cold, wet climate, but is found mainly in south and south-west Dorset, Somerset, , and the Isle of Wight. In carcass quality and conformation the breed is not up to the standard of the Down breeds.

Ryeland

Perhaps the rather chequered story of the Ryeland might have been more noteworthy if there had been an Ellman or a Jonas Webb to try his skill at breed improvement in, Hereford. The Ryeland, too, is . a very old breed, descended from the small sheep kept in the Ryelands district of southern Herefordshire and noted for their fineness of wool. Professor Scott Watson says the breed was the favourite of “Farmer George” (King George III) and quotes him as saying he “wanted no better sort of foreign sheep than the true Hereford Ryland.”

However this may be, George Ill’s very real interest in the Spanish Merino certainly led to a good deal of crossing with the Ryeland, but it appears that, apart from some slight cross with the Leicester, the Ryeland is very similar to the ancient breed.

The rage for Shropshires and other Down breeds threatened the Ryeland even in its home county until in 1903 only 30 flocks were left. However, determined efforts by some breeders increased the demand and the Ryeland flocks, and the breed joined in the competition for early fat lamb production. The Ryeland is now of no pronounced importance in any particular district in Britain.

The Ryeland is fairly small, very docile, and unless kept on second-class land tends to put on too much fat for present tastes. The fleece is white and fairly uniform in quality. The rams are in some demand for cross-breeding.

Southdown

In this article the name of John Ellman, of Glynde in Sussex, is associated with that of Bakewell. Starting with different raw material and working under different conditions, Ellman produced a very different new breed ‘of sheep. The Southdown bears the same relationship to other Down breeds as the English Leicester bears to the long-woolled breeds. Therefore pride of place must be given to the Southdown in dealing with the Down breeds.

The local breeds which roamed the downs are described as small and .ill shaped, with a very short and light fleece of indifferent quality. This was the type on which Ellman began his life’s work toward the end of the 18th century. Ellman’s object was different from Bakewell’s: He wanted a sheep that would thrive on the poor, dry downlands and that would yield, not a heavy carcass with a superabundance

of fat, but a choice quality of finegrained meat. It appears, too, that his methods were different in that he avoided close in-and-in breeding. Glynde Estate and its master soon became famous for the mutton qualities of the Southdowns.

In the early years of the 19th century there was no royal show and the main farmers’ gatherings were the annual sheep shearings. There were many such gatherings, but two of the most notable were those held at Hoikham and at Woburn. These' estates were also noted for their Southdowns', for in 1790 Ellman had persuaded Coke of Hoikham, a great agriculturist, to replace his old Norfolk Horned breed with the Southdown. . At about the same time Francis, Duke of Bedford, gave the breed a trial at Woburn; a purebred flock was established there later.

However, it was Jonas Webb of Babraham who carried on the Ellman tradition. He started life as manager for Mr. Adeane of Babraham, and there he first met Ellman, who was at the height of his fame at Glynde. Webb struck success rapidly after leasing a farm at Babraham and buying from the chief Sussex breeders. After Ellman retired in 1829 Webb

took the lead, and he is said to have retained constitution and wool, though he could not stand a “muffly-faced sheep.” The Babraham flock was auctioned in 1861, the year before Webb’s death, and the 1404 sheep realised a total of £16,646. A statue was erected in Cambridge to his memory; the inscription is —“From farmers and friends in many lands.” Jonas Webb was one of the very few great farmers to whose memory a statue was erected.

The influence of the Southdown has been very wide, both in the development of the other Down breeds and in lamb- and muttonraising flocks overseas.

Shropshire The original parent stock of the Shropshire largely roamed the hills and commons of Shropshire and Staffordshire. They were Morfe Common sheep, those of the Longmynd, and those of Cannock Chase. From the blending of these sheep with a cross of Southdown brought in by Samuel Meire of Harley in 1810, the Shropshire was evolved.

The modern Shropshire is a very different animal from those exhibited by Meire and- Adney at royal shows from 1853 to 1856. The skill of Shropshire breeders of the past 70 years has changed the speckled face to one of soft black, improved the carcass out of recognition, and turned the wool that was once open into a dense, fine staple. The excessive woolliness of the head has told against it for crossbreeding. It is now more important and better known overseas, for its popularity in England has declined in recent years.

Suffolk

The transformation of the Old Norfolk Horned breed into the Suffolk is another instance of the influence of Ellman’s Southdown. Arthur Young and a tenant farmer of his were largely responsible for early experiments with the cross. The Suffolk had inherited something of the activity of the Old Norfolk, but it was combined with a better carcass and the earlier-maturing qualities of the Southdown. By the middle of the 19th century flocks of pure Norfolks were rare, for most of the sheep.. were crosses of varying degree. However, the new Suffolk type was being fixed by the continued careful selection of such men as George Dobito of Cropley Grove.

The Suffolk, though originally bred for East Anglian arable farms, is now more widely scattered through Britain than any other Down breed because of its great popularity for cross-breed-ing. It is a striking sheep with its black face and legs, and in contrast to the Shropshire the wool does not extend below the knees and hocks or on to the head. It is more prolific than most Down breeds.

Hampshire Down and Dorset Down

There are now many more Hampshire Downs in Wiltshire than in Hampshire, but their ancestors were the old scraggy Wiltshire Horns and Berkshire Knots. About 1840 a Mr. Humphrey experimented with the use of Southdown rams on this stock, finally buying rams from Jonas Webb —in fact, one of them was a son of Webb’s great sire Babraham. The rams were mated to the biggest of the ewes and left some good progeny which founded the breed. Humphrey was later able to exchange rams with one Saunders from about Dorchester, who had been breeding along the same lines, but Saunders’s type in time became not Hampshires but Dorset Downs.

The Dorset Down is a type similar to the Hampshire Down, though slightly smaller in size and lighter in face and leg colour. In its home district of the counties of Dorset and Somerset it is quite a valuable commercial type. Like the Dorset Down, the Hampshire is a breed peculiarly suited to the arable-land sheep farming of the southern chalk uplands. It is a large breed with brownish-black face and leg colour, woolled down the legs, over the poll, and on the cheeks. Its most important feature is its capacity to make very rapid liveweight gains when heavily fed.

Oxford Down

The origin of the Oxford Down is interesting. In 1829 John Twynam, who had a flock of Hampshire ewes at Whitchurch in Hampshire, was visiting a farm with a neighbour. They came on a flock of Hampshires like his own, but half the lambs were by Cotswold sires, the other half being purebred. He was so struck with the increased size and condition of the crossbreds that eventually he carried on the crossbreeding on a large scale. Many other breeders followed suit, some buying his crossbred rams while others bred their own, and eventually they were able to fix the new type. The Oxford Down replaced the Cotswold in its own district.

It is the largest of the Down breeds and has a longer fleece. Compared with the Hampshire Down, it is more hardy and better suited to cold, wet, arable land. Like the Suffolk, the Oxford Down now has a scattered distribution because of the demand for rams for cross-breeding in the Midlands and the border counties.

Long-woolled Breeds

As purebreds the long-woolled breeds are much less in demand than 50 years ago and therefore are less important. The importance of wool in relation to early maturity and fleshing properties has declined except in breeds like the Romney Marsh, for which there is still an export trade to the wool-growing countries. Mutton now must be small and lean, for consumers’ tastes have changed.

The long-wools produce fleeces of 10 to 151 b., long in the staple, lustrous, and large in fibre diameter. The demand and price for this type of wool have fallen m comparison with other types, so there has been a trend away from long-woolled sheep, and among those that remain cross-breeding has become increasingly prevalent. On the rich lowlands, however, the longwools still hold their own.

Children hear a spate of praise for great poets, great engineers, great soldiers and sailors, but the fame and honour that are due to great farmers are not so loudly sung. That appears strange in view of the work of such men as Robert Bakewell of Dishley and John Ellman of Glynde— their patience and determination they showed the world how to establish improved types of sheep.”

Professor Scott Watson in 1936 put the position concisely: “The indirect influence of Bakewell’s sheep is still very great, for many of our modern breeds owe a great deal to Dishley blood. It was a belated honour to Bakewell’s memory when a few years ago his grave in the little ruined

chapel at Dishley Grange was restored and a tablet was erected to his memory.” New Leicester Dishley Grange, in Leicestershire, was the home of Robert Bakewell, who developed the modern sheep. During the latter half of the 18th century the population of Britain increased rapidly and improved methods of farming allowed sheep to be fattened throughout the winter and spring, when previously they had barely subsisted, leading to the great change in breeding policy and the increased importance of meat over wool. For about 30 years before 1790 Bakewell developed the first improved long-wool from the old Leicester type, changing the old coarse-boned, slow-feeding animal into the symmetrical, fine-boned New Leicester. Bakewell’s Leicesters in time became very famous, and rams which he bred were used to improve existing localised long-woolled types. His methods of breeding and the example he set in the results he achieved were even more important than the type he produced. He was the great pioneer of inbreeding, careful selection, and the

application of the progeny test to the sire. Before Bakewell died in 1795 New Leicesters were to be found in most of the counties of Great Britain and in several Continental countries.

The English Leicester is a mediumsized long-wool, blockily built and producing a good type of fleece. Most purebred flocks are now in east Yorkshire and Durham, but it has been a very famous breed abroad. Border Leicester The Border Leicester is a Cheviotlike edition of the previous breed, from which it originated. Two brothers, Matthew and George Culley, who had been pupils at Dishley, went to farm in Northumberland, taking Dishley sheep to found a flock. They followedBakewell’s practice of hiring out rams, watching the result, and using the sires in the home flock if they proved successful. Many local farmers on both sides of the Tweed followed the

Culleys’ example and with them continued to go back to Dishley when they wanted fresh blood. Gradually the local breeds of sheep were crossed out of recognition with Leicester rams, and later the Border type emerged as distinct from the English Leicester. It is a breed of naturally-high prolificacy and, with its high carriage of head and strong, aquiline nose, the Border Leicester has quite an aristocratic appearance. The breed is of vital importance because of the value of the ram in cross-breeding; mated with the Cheviot it produces the halfbred, Britain’s most famous crossbred, and it is also important for crossing with black-faced breeds, producing the so-called Greyface or Mule. Most purebred flocks are in the Scottish lowlands and Northumber-

land. As long as the half-bred ewe (the Barmshire of Yorkshire) retains its popularity for lowland pastures, the parent breedsthe Cheviot and the Border Leicestermust' remain very important in the sheep farming of the north country. Down-type rams, principally the Oxford and the Suffolk, are used on half-bred and Mule ewes to produce fat lambs, and now this system of sheep husbandry has spread far to the south. Lincoln Longwool The Lincoln Longwool had an ancient reputation for the length and strength of its lustrous wool and was an early rival of Bakewell’s Leicester. It has been bred by six or seven generations of sheep experts for size and frame, weight of meat, and weight

of fleece, and it is the largest breed in Britain, if not the world. It used to be kept extensively on the high wolds of Lincolnshire and was developed for arable-farming conditions. From lowly beginnings it reached world fame by the end of the 19th century, and in 1906, 6928 stud sheep of the breed were exported. However, that day is gone, though the Lincoln contributed to the development of the Corriedale in New Zealand.

Kent or Romney Marsh

In the export trade the Lincoln had a rival in the Kent or Romney Marsh breed, for which there is still some demand in the wool-producing countries overseas. From the point of view of numbers it is Britain’s most important long-wool. The breed is reputed to be traceable in the local records back to the 15th century. It was developed for a unique area of rich but exposed grazing land —the Romney Marsh, in the south-west corner of Kent. Here, too, breeders appear to have been influenced by Bakewell’s example, though they did not use Dishley blood. Though seldom found outside the south-eastern counties in England, the breed played a great part in building the fat lambraising flocks of the world, including those of New Zealand.

In build it is very compact and short on the leg, and its wool is shorter, denser, and finer in quality than that of the other long-wools. Quite early it found a second home in the North Island of New Zealand, and now it is said that the Romney breeders of the Dominion have nothing to learn from Kent.

"The Stud Farm of the World"

Britain has been called the stud farm of the world, and certainly some of the British sheep breeds have been supreme for flesh production. Now the average Briton who thinks of sheep at all thinks of them primarily as producers of mutton and lamb, but wool is still important as an agricultural product of Britain—-in fact, it is one of the few agricultural products exported.

Because Britain keeps sheep under such a wide range of environment, she maintains a great variety of breeds and has an even greater variety of crossbreeds, many of which are of proved commercial value for slaughter or as breeding stock. British breeds tend to become fewer, some having failed to endure the test of time and changing conditions. Perhaps in the future. as New Zealand’s sheep industry becomes more specialised and intensive a greater diversity of breed types will be developed.

References Southey, Thomas: "Rise, Progress, and Present State of. Colonial Sheep and Wools,’’ Effingham Wilson, London, 1851. Youatt, William: “Sheep, Their Breeds, Management, and Diseases,” Simpkin, Marshall and Co., London, 1883, probably first written in 1836. Scott Watson, Professor J. A., and Hobbs, May Elliot: "Great Farmers,” Selwyn and Blount, London, 1937. Fraser, Allan: “Sheep Farming,” Crosby Lockwood and Son Ltd., London, 1937. Thomas, J. F. H., and others: "Sheep,” Faber and . Faber Ltd., London, 1945.

Bullock Teams in Maori Agriculture

“THIS photograph of a Maori discing with a bullock team was taken in the * Punakitere Valley, Hokianga County, North Auckland. In the same field two other primitive agricultural methods were being employed opening up a furrow with a l-horse single-furrow plough and hand planting of maize in the furrow. The Maori in control of the team was very skilful in his handling and did all of it by low-voiced instructions to his bullocks without recourse to the whip. He explained that the land had been ploughed by bullocks using a bigger team than that employed for the discs. .When not used on farm work the bullocks worked in the bush hauling logs for the mills. —I. J. Cunningham, Superintendent, Department of Agriculture Animal Research Station, Wallaceville. .