[Illustration: A SOUTH-DOWN RAM.]
A long range of chalky hills, diverging from the chalky stratum which
intersects England from Norfolk to Dorchester, is termed the
South-Downs. They enter the county of Sussex on the west side, and are
continued almost in a direct line, as far as East Bourne, where they
reach the sea. They may be regarded as occupying a space of more than
sixty miles in length, and about five or six in breadth, consisting of a
succession of open downs, with few enclosures, and distinguished by
their situation and name from a more northern tract of similar elevation
and soil, passing through Surrey and Kent, and terminating in the cliffs
of Dover, and of the Forelands. On these downs a certain breed of sheep
has been produced for many centuries, in greater perfection than
elsewhere; and hence have sprung those successive colonies which have
found their way abroad and materially benefited the breed of
short-woolled sheep wherever they have gone.
It is only, however, within a comparatively recent period that they have
been brought to their present perfection. As recently as 1776 they were
small in size, and of a form not superior to the common woolled sheep of
the United States; they were far from possessing a good shape, being
long and thin in the neck, high on the shoulders, low behind, high on
the loins, down on the rump, the tail set on very low, perpendicular
from the hip-bones, sharp on the back; the ribs flat, not bowing, narrow
in the fore-quarters, but good in the leg, although having big bones.
Since that period a course of judicious breeding, pursued by Mr. John
Ellman, of Glynde, in Sussex, has mainly contributed to raise this
variety to its present value; and that, too, without the admixture of
the slightest degree of foreign blood.
This pure, improved family, it will be borne in mind, is spoken of in
the present connection; inasmuch as the original stock, presenting, with
trifling modifications, the same characteristics which they exhibited
seventy-five years ago, are yet to be found in England; and the
intermediate space between these two classes is occupied by a variety of
grades, rising or falling in value, as they approximate to or recede
from the improved blood.
The South-Down sheep are polled, but it is probable that the original
breed was horned, as it is not unusual to find among the male South-Down
lambs some with small horns. The dusky, or at times, black hue of the
head and legs fully establishes the original color of the sheep, and,
perhaps of all sheep; while the later period at which it was seriously
attempted to get rid of this dingy hue proving unsuccessful, only
confirms this view. Many of the lambs have been dropped entirely black.
It is an upland sheep, of medium size, and its wool--which in point of
length belongs to the middle class, and differs essentially from Merino
wool of any grade, though the fibre in some of the finest fleeces maybe
of the same apparent fineness with half or one-quarter blood Merino--is
deficient in felting properties, making a fuzzy, hairy cloth, and is no
longer used in England, unless largely mixed with foreign wool, even for
the lowest class of cloths. As it has deteriorated, however, it has
increased in length of staple, in that country, to such an extent that
improved machinery enables it to be used as a combing-wool, for the
manufacture of worsteds. Where this has taken place it is quite as
profitable as when it was finer and shorter. In the United States, where
the demand for combing-wool is so small that it is easily met by a
better article, the same result would not probably follow. Indeed, it
may well be doubted whether the proper combing length will be easily
reached, or at least maintained in this country, in the absence of that
high feeding system which has undoubtedly given the wool its increased
length in England. The average weight of fleece in the hill-fed sheep is
three pounds; on rich lowlands, a little more.
The South-Down, however, is cultivated more particularly for its mutton,
which for quality takes precedence of all other--from sheep of good
size--in the English markets. Its early maturity and extreme aptitude to
lay on flesh, render it peculiarly valuable for this purpose. It is
turned off at the age of two years, and its weight at that age is, in
England, from eighty to one hundred pounds. High-fed wethers have
reached from thirty-two to even forty pounds a quarter. Notwithstanding
its weight, it has a patience of occasional short keep, and an
endurance of hard stocking, equal to any other sheep. This gives it a
decided advantage over the bulkier Leicesters and Lincolns, as a mutton
sheep, in hilly districts and those producing short and scanty herbage.
It is hardy and healthy, though, in common with the other English
varieties, much subject to catarrh, and no sheep better withstands our
American winters. The ewes are prolific breeders and good nurses.
The Down is quiet and docile in its habits, and, though an industrious
feeder, exhibits but little disposition to rove. Like the Leicester, it
is comparatively a short-lived animal, and the fleece continues to
decrease in weight after it reaches maturity. It crosses better with
short and middle-woolled breeds than the Leicester. A sheep possessing
such qualities, must, of necessity, be valuable in upland districts in
the vicinity of markets. The Emperor of Russia paid Mr. Ellman three
hundred guineas (fifteen hundred dollars) for two rams; and, in 1800, a
ram belonging to the Duke of Bedford was let for one season at eighty
guineas (four hundred dollars), two others at forty guineas (two hundred
dollars) each, and four more at twenty-eight guineas (one hundred and
forty dollars) each. The first importation into the United States was
made by Col. J. H. Powell, of Philadelphia. A subsequent importation, in
1834, cost sixty dollars a head.
The desirable characteristics of the South-Down may be thus summed up:
The head small and hornless; the face speckled or gray, and neither too
long nor too short; the lips thin, and the space between the nose and
the eyes narrow; the under-jaw or chap fine and thin; the ears tolerably
wide and well-covered with wool, and the forehead also, and the whole
space between the ears well protected by it, as a defence against the
fly; the eye full and bright, but not prominent; the orbits of the eye,
the eye-cap or bone not too projecting, that it may not form a fatal
obstacle in lambing; the neck of a medium length, thin toward the head,
but enlarging toward the shoulders, where it should be broad and high
and straight in its whole course above and below.
The breast should be wide, deep, and projecting forward between the
fore-legs, indicating a good constitution and a disposition to thrive;
corresponding with this, the shoulders should be on a level with the
back, and not too wide above; they should bow outward from the top to
the breast, indicating a springing rib beneath, and leaving room for it;
the ribs coming out horizontally from the spine, and extending far
backward, and the last rib projecting more than others; the back flat
from the shoulders to the setting on of the tail; the loin broad and
flat; the rump broad, and the tail set on high, and nearly on a level
with the spine.
The hips should be wide; the space between them and the last rib on each
side as narrow as possible, and the ribs generally presenting a circular
form like a barrel; the belly as straight as the back; the legs neither
too long nor too short; the fore-legs straight from the breast to the
foot, not bending inward at the knee, and standing far apart, both
before and behind; the hock having a direction rather outward, and they
twist, or the meeting of the thighs behind, being particularly full; the
bones fine, yet having no appearance of weakness, and of a speckled or
dark color; the belly well defended with wool, and the wool coming down
before and behind to the knee and to the hock; the wool short, close,
curled and fine, and free from spiny projecting fibres.