File:Sheep, breeds and management (1893) (14595217380).jpg

Identifier: sheepbreedsmanag00wrig (find matches)
Title: Sheep, breeds and management
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Wrightson, John
Subjects: Sheep
Publisher: London, Vinton
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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nt of our live stock. The Dorset Horn. The horned sheep of Dorsetshire form a singularly well-marked race. In all the other Down sheep we find shortwool associated with brown faces and legs, but in the Dorsetwe see a survival of a white-faced, horned, and short-woolledrace, which has been for a very long period associated withthe chalk hills of the county. Description of the old Wilt-shire croocks in some respects favour the idea that thepresent Dorset sheep are similar to those extinct Wiltshires,which disappeared early in the present century, owing to thewestward progress of the Southdowns. The Dorset breedersappear to have settled upon the process of selection ratherthan of crossing. They possess a sheep with special charac-teristics, and they wisely stick to them. Crossing was nodoubt attempted, both with Devonshire Knots and theLeicesters ; but William Youatt informs us that the attemptwas not successful, and the breed has been handed down astruly representative of the old stock.
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THE DORSET HORN. 77 The peculiarity which stamps the Dorset sheep is theextreme earhness of the time in which they bring forththeir young. They take the ram in April and lamb inSeptember, thus producing lambs fit for the table in De-cember, when lamb is a luxury, and therefore commandsa highly remunerative price. Fifty years ago the Dorsetsheep was described by Youatt as entirely white, the facelong and broad, with a tuft of wool on the forehead, theshoulders low but broad, the back straight, the chest deep,the loins broad, the legs rather beyond a moderate length,and the bone small. The ram carries a pair of finely-turnedhorns, and the ewe carries a crooked horn, but without con-volutions or spiral turnings. They are described as hardyand good folders, yielding well-flavoured mutton, and asaveraging when three years old from i6 to 20 lbs. per quarterof marketable carcase. The marked improvement which has been effected sinceYouatt wrote is shown by the fact that at ten to sixteenmonth

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