ude to fatten,
without much loss in offal, of the Leicester;[17] and they commend to the
lover of good mutton the Shropshire and South-Downs.

In the sixteenth volume of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society
of England, Mr. Lawes gives some valuable information relative to the
comparative fattening qualities of different breeds of sheep. The
following table, on this author's authority, shows the average food
consumed in producing 100 lbs. increase in live weight:--

Breed. Oil Cake. Clover. Swedes.

Sussex 297-1/4 285-1/2 3.835-3/4
Hampshire 291-1/2 261-1/4 3.966-3/4
Cross-bred Wethers 264-1/2 251-3/4 3.725-1/4
Do. Ewes 263-1/2 250-1/4 3.671
Leicesters 263-3/4 251-1/4 3.761
Cotswolds 253-1/2 216-3/4 3.557-1/2

Some breeds are profitably kept in certain localities, where other kinds
would not pay so well: for example, the Devons, according to Mr. Smith,
are better adapted than larger breeds for "converting the produce of
cold and hilly pastures into meat." It is remarkable that nearly all the
best existing breeds of oxen and sheep are crosses. Major Rudd states
that the dam of Hubback, the famous founder of pure improved Shorthorns,
owed her propensity to fatten to an admixture of Kyloe blood, and also
that the sire of Hubback had a stain of Alderney, or Normandy blood.
Although the Rudd account of the ancestry of Hubback is not accepted by
all the historians of this splendid breed of cattle, there is no doubt
but that the breed owes its origin as much to judicious crossing as to
careful selection of sires and dams. It must not, however, be imagined
that there are no good pure races of stock. There is a perfectly pure,
but now scarce, tribe of Kerry oxen, admirably adapted to poor uplands.
The excellent Southdown sheep, though in every respect immensely
superior to their ancestors in the last century, have not attained to
their present superior state by crossing. The high value placed by
breeders upon good sires and dams in the approved breeds of stock is
shown by the large sums which they frequently realise at sales, or when
the former are let out for service. Bakewell received in one season for
the use of a ram 400 guineas each from two breeders, and they did not
retain the animal during the whole season. Several