Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/624

548 with the Sussex Down, is now a distinct or constituted breed. The distinguishing features are black faces and black shanks, and the head is bare of wool even behind the ears. This at once distinguishes them from Hampshire Downs. They have no horns, and the wool and mutton are of excellent quality. There is no better breed, but space scarcely allows of extended remarks upon this, the third true Down sheep requiring notice.

The Dorset Horn.—The Dorset horned sheep is chiefly found in South Hants, the Isle of Wight and on the south coast. It is a white-faced breed, horned in both sexes, and covered with fine white wool. Its chief distinction lies in the fact that it produces the earliest lamb for the London market. The ewes drop their lambs in September and later, and the greatest pains is taken in order to provide fat lambs about Christmas. This form of sheep-farming requires a breed adapted to the purpose and a favourable climate, and both these conditions are supplied by the Dorset sheep and the Dorsetshire soil.

MOUNTAIN AND FOREST BREEDS.

The Scotch black faces have already received attention, and must rank as the widest in distribution of any mountain or forest breed. As, however, several of the less known breeds are highly appreciated for the fineness of their flesh, and its delicate and close-grained quality, a short space must be devoted to them. Welsh mutton stands high in public estimation, and is furnished by the small white-faced hornless sheep of the Principality, which attains a weight of 9 to 10 lb. a quarter.

Dartmoor and Exmoor Sheep.—Although the sheep of Dartmoor and Exmoor have been modified by Leicester crosses, there still remains the original small-horned white-faced sheep, which resembles a diminutive Dorset, weighing 9 to 12 lb. per quarter. This produces the celebrated Okehampton mutton, which always commands a high price in London.

Clun Forest Sheep, etc.—These are a white-faced hornless breed of small size, and may be named in connexion with the black- faced horned Long Mynd breed, and fine-woolled Morfe common horned, speckled-faced sheep, which is said to have been used in bringing out the better known Shropshire breed of sheep.

The Herdwick Sheep.—This is a race which is cultivated in Westmoreland, Cumberland and the Lake district. It is highly popular in these districts, and the lambs are born with black heads and feet, but gradually become white as they grow older. Horns are not essential, although they are frequent in the rams, but the ewes are hornless. The Herdwick sheep exhibited at Chester in 1893 were often dark in the wool, and the second prize ram was nearly black. Swarthiness in the wool did not appear to disqualify in the eyes of the judges.

Lonk Sheep.—These sheep resemble the Scotch black-faced breed,