 |
American Cotswold Record AssociationThe Original Registry Of Purebred Cotswold Sheep
(Background of this page is an actual photo of super-lustrous Cotswold fleece) |
|
|
|
Back to "Cotswold vs. Other Breeds" page Bleak Hilltops Were Their Home…"The climate of Gloucestershire varies according to the elevation of the land. In the valleys, especially those which are sheltered on the north and east, the temperature is mild. "On the Cotswold Hills the air is sharp and bracing, and as the progress of tillage has brought higher lands into cultivation, farmhouses have been built in the situations which require a hardy race to bear the keenness of the air. The children who can be reared there are strong and healthy, but those who are born with delicate frames have little chance of life if not removed to a milder air… "The soil on the Cotswolds is chiefly a calcareous sand, a few inches deep, resting on oolite, a calcareous freestone commonly called stonebrash. The poorest is only fit for sheep pasture; but the feed is very sweet, and sheep thrive well on it. Where it has been improved by cultivation and by the repeated folding of sheep, it bears tolerable crops of oats and barley, and where there is an admixture of clay in the loam, even of wheat… "The sheep peculiar to this county are the Cotswold, …large in the carcass, and rather strong in the bone. "…This breed has been successfully crossed with the improved Leicester, and also with the South-Down, in both cases with decided advantage." The English Cyclopaedia; A New Dictionary of Universal Knowledge, Charles Knight, ed., Bradbury & Evans, London, 1854, 1867, vol. 3; page 47. |
Last Updated: 05/09/2011
|