eight members; the number of registered flocks in 1905 was 213, and there were 226 members. It was in July, 1898, that a Lincoln ram first ran into four figures at a public auction sale; and though Messrs. S. E. Dean and Sons, Dowsby Hall, did their best to keep the sheep in England, and bid up to 950 guineas, he was eventually knocked down, amid a scene of the greatest excitement, to Mr. F, Miller, Birkenhead, who was acting on behalf of Señor Manuel Cobo, Buenos Ayres. The average for the fifty-two rams sold at the Riby sale was £87, the three 'Royal' winners averaging £472 10s., and the best ten £287 14s. It might be mentioned that 670 Lincolns were shown at the Palermo Show, Buenos Ayres, that year, and that the Champion Prize went to Señor Cobo's 1,000 guinea purchase. Señor Cobo also bought the Royal winner of 1900, again giving 1,000 guineas for the honour of becoming its owner, and this time the keenest competition came from another South American buyer, although several prominent home breeders remained in as bidders for some time. The fifty rams averaged £77 18s. this year. One of the Riby rams was purchased at the annual sale in 1899 to go to Buenos Ayres at 220 guineas, and another in 1903 for 250 guineas. At the Smithfield Show, Christmas, 1902, Mr. Dudding won the Prince of Wales's 100-guinea Challenge Cup for the best pen of sheep of any breed. The other leading breeders of Lincoln sheep in the county are:—Messrs. R. and W. Wright, Nocton, who sold a ram at the association sales in 1898, for 300 guineas, to go to New Zealand, and their first prize shearling ram at the Royal Show in 1905, fell to Mr. F. Miller, Birkenhead, for 1,000 guineas, and their first prize pen of five shearling rams at the same show, and to the same purchaser, for 1,500 guineas; Mr. T. Casswell, Pointon, whose best sheep made 215 guineas and 200 guineas respectively at the Lincoln Longwool Sheep-breeders' Association's sale at Lincoln in 1898 and 1899; Messrs. S. E. Dean and Sons, Dowsby Hall, who have been large exporters to South America and elsewhere, and whose sheep have always commanded high prices; Mr. J. E. Casswell, Laughton, who owns one of the oldest flocks in the county, and who sold twenty rams at the association's sale at Lincoln in 1897 at an average of £65 4s., the top price being 200 guineas, while another ram went into the Dowsby flock the following year at 235 guineas; Mr. John Pears, Mere Hall, who also possesses an old-established flock; Mr. C. E. Howard, Nocton Rise, who recently took over his father's flock, and for the first time of asking made 300 guineas of a ram at the Lincoln sale in 1904; Mr. W. B. Swallow, Wootton; Mr. G. Marris, Kirmington; Mr. W. Taylor-Sharpe, Baumber Park; Mr, F. Ward, Quarrington; Mr. J. B. Nelson, Bigby; Mr. J. Cartwright, Dunston Pillar; Mr. C. Clarke, Scopwick; Mr. H. Goodyear, Bourn; Messrs. J. T. and A. W. Needham, Huttoft, who in 1905 sold a ram at Partney Fair for 600 guineas to go to Argentina; Sir John Thorold, Syston Park; Mr. J. Anderson, Barton; and Mr. H. E. Davy, Croxby. A very famous flock, now dispersed was that belonging to Messrs. J. R. and R. R. Kirkham, Biscathorpe.
On a few farms the Lincoln ewe is crossed with a Hampshire Down ram, chiefly with a view to supplying the markets with early lamb, and Mr. Jonas Webb has a flock of Southdowns besides his Lincolns but by far the greater number of the flocks in the county are pure-bred Lincolns.
