COTSWOLD SHEEP. The Cotswold are an old English breed of sheep and, as improved, rank as among the very best of the long wooled breeds as they are among the largest. They began to be imported into the United States about 1832, since which time they have been generally dissem inated, giving good satisfac tion, everywhere, but have grown in the estimation of breeders, especially in Can ada, the Western States and the more northern of the Southern States. As com pared with the Leicester, Cotswold are more prolific, and have better constitu tional vigor. They have been improved in form, fleece, and early maturity, so that they may be sent to the butcher at from four teen months to two years old, giving twenty pounds of mutton, per quarter, at fourteen months, and thirty pounds, per quarter, at two years old. So their fleeces, will go, in exceptional cases, up to eighteen pounds per fleece, a most wonderful weight, when we take into. consideration the fact that the woo] shrinks but little in washing, in comparison with the fine, gummy wooled sheep. The superior hardi ness of the Cotswold, the good nursing qualities of the ewes, their good flesh, and their prolific qualities, have rendered them especial fav orites in the 4reat prairie region of the L nited States. If to this we add the fact that they cross kindly with the Leicester, improving their quality, and also with the Southdown, increasing the size and the wool, it seems not too much to say that they will not only hold their own but, year by year, become mere and more liked. On this and
the next page we give illus trations, showing superior strain of Cotswold yearling ewes, as they appear in spring before shearing, and the improved Cots wold also carrying a full fleece. Cotswold woos shrinks but eighteen to twenty per cent., while the shrinkage in Merino wool ranges from forty to seventy per cent. ; thus a pound of Cotswold wool will produce as much clean (scoured) wool as two and a half pounds of Merino wool, allow ing the latter shrinks sixty-eight per cent., which the more gummy will. South of the Ohio river, the Cotswold is reported as wintering without artificial feeding, unless in exceptional years. The same is true west of the Mississippi, in a latitude below the mouth of the Missouri. This fact is true, however, of sheep generally, except some of the more tender breeds, or those not well inured to our climate. One thing should always be remembered in connection with the keeping of all long and even middle wooled sheep. They will not do well in large flocks, as is usual with the Merino. Flocks of 100 are quite large enough, and should never be exceeded. Thus the long wools, and middle wools, are especially adapted to those farms where but few sheep are kept, especially near markets where superior lambs and mutton bring extra prices.