butcher when from ten to twelve weeks old, when they average 10 to 14 lb. per quarter, and go to the London market. They then make from 40s. to 50s. each.

The off-going ewes are fattened off as well as the lambs, and, when highly kept, are ready for market at the same time, and average from 22 to 28 lb. per quarter. Dorset ewe lambs have been bred from under twelve months old, the rams being put with them in November and December, and their produce being fit for the butcher in the following midsummer, realizing from 28s. to 35s. each.

This breed does better on the high sour lands than Down sheep, there being little risk in lambing them. The lambs yield from 2� to 3 lb. of wool and the ewes from 5 to 7 lb., and yearling rams from 10 to 14 lb. The wool of the Horn lamb is much prized on account of its whiteness and the fine point it possesses, whilst the fleeces command better prices than those of most other breeds. The principal fair for the sale of Dorset Horn sheep, especially early lambing ewes, was formerly Weyhill, to which place they used to be driven a distance of fifty or sixty miles, and it was by no means uncommon for lambs to be born on the road. They do not undertake such a journey now, nearly the whole of them being brought on the last Thursday in September to Dorchester Poundbury Fair, established in 1848, at which prizes are given for the best ewes. Some 13,000 to 16,000 sheep may be seen at this fair, and some of the ewes realize from 48s. to 75s. per head. A large annual sale of ewes, rams, and ram-lambs is held at Dorchester in the month of May. On these occasions ram-lambs fetch from five to twenty guineas each, and the best rams from fifteen to forty guineas each. Though the Dorset Horn sheep had a distinct class to itself at the Royal Agricultural Society's Show held at Battersea in 1862, it was not until 1867 that this recognition was permanently established. Since then they have been regularly exhibited and prizes offered at the Royal and Bath and West of England Agricultural Societies and local shows. It is impossible to give the number of Dorset Horn sheep in the county, either for past or present years, but it may be sufficient to state that the Flock Book for 1906 contains the history of 45,302 ewes, 19,649 ewe hoggets, and 839 pedigree rams.

The breed of sheep known as the Dorset Down sheep, though enjoying but slight notoriety in present times, can trace its origin back to some eighty years ago. Its present type is rather an evolution of the Hampshire Down breed, in fact it was in its earlier days known as the 'Watercombe Breed of Improved Hampshire Downs.' Its establishment is due to the efforts of Mr. Thomas Homer Saunders of Watercombe, near Dorchester, who considered that the Down sheep then bred in the county, although a ` kindly' race of sheep, were deficient in size. He therefore selected the, largest ewes he could find, and crossed them with rams of still larger size, and, by judicious crossing, in time he created a type of sheep that ultimately became known under the above title, which took its name from Mr. Saunders's farm. The sheep bred by Mr. Thomas Homer Saunders and Mr. Humfrey of Chaddleworth, near Newbury, who had experimented and produced a similar type of Down sheep, were largely introduced into the Down flocks of Dorset, and also into many of the flocks of Hampshire and Wiltshire, and in return the Dorset breeders have, to a large extent, resorted to the leading flocks of those counties for requisite changes of blood, with the result that the Dorset Down breed now registered, although of finer bone and often of lighter colour, is closely related to, and possesses the principal features of, the Hampshire Down type, modified by `local conditions.

A good type of Dorset Down should be free from all coarseness, the chief points being a rather long, full, clean face and under-jaw, with a bold bright eye and full muzzle ; the ears should be fairly long, thin, pointed, whole-coloured, and carried well above the level of the eyes ; the neck strong and well set on. The animal should be fairly fine-boned, and covered with a close fine fleece going well down to the hocks and knees, round the cheeks, and between the ears and on the forehead. It is desirable that the face, ears, and legs should be of a greyish-brown colour. The Dorset Down should embody the good points common to all breeds of sheep, but should be especially good through the heart and behind the shoulder ; it should also have a well-let-down and rounded leg, and whilst not standing too short, there should be no tendency to legginess. The following are some of the chief characteristics of the Dorset Down breed as set out in the Flock Book :

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