"FAKING" OF SHOW SHEEP.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1166, 29 June 1911, Page 10

"FAKING" OF SHOW SHEEP.

J A CRT FROM AUSTRALIA. Up to ths present t.irao there has been -rorv little of'tho faking and trimming ...of show sheep allowed in Australia | a. writer-in the Sydney "Mail ). the > writer continues: "In America -*nd Eng- | land this trickery has become a'scandal. f - The result is that after every big fair I the columns of the papers which specially, ise .in tho industries of the soil teem S with correspondence concerning the mat- !• ter. In New Zealand, too, the practico ! of making she-ep appear what they are not is bubbling up to a fir.o pitch, and, before; very long, there will be._ serious trouble there to eradicate, the evil. This faking and trimming of, show sheep is liko a 'lot of other bad practices—once, it-guts a hold it is not an easy, matter, ~ -to;'weed it out. In America and Great r. Britain'it has become as solid as a vested I : interest, and those breeders who raise : sheep which require some assistance from i the expert trimmer, tenaciously 1 hold to • ! a. custom which -helps t'nem to compete ! ' against tho. breeders of animals that pDswss greater merit, and do not require to be faked to fetch good prices nt the fair." _ ; He goes on to deal with tho position | in .New. Zealand, and writes very strong- [ ly against "faking." Returning to the |; general question! Jio says:— | |f'- TESTS OF FAKERS' SKILL. ; "Basides the trimming and colouring [' of thn longwool breeds, there is a prac- ; tics of showing an animal with a growth r of 15 months' wool, and declaring at the i 'same time that it is a growth of only 12 :. months. It is not an easy matter to j detect this fraud. The. sheep may have ; been handled 12'.months before, and ; cither clipped or shorn long by an ex- • pert. 'The chief object is to leave such ' a quantity of wool 011 certain parts of the' i- sheep as "will appear to most people as i a' genuine year's, "growth. Tho resuit is 1 a growth that appears, to be tho very i acme of uniformity; When men are found ;. to admit, this, way ..of treating their sheep i tlicy justify theniselv«9 by saying, that, t ; others do it and why should not they? [ ' There is something in this contention. !;' Tho people primarily to blame arc the j; show committee for not .equipping the ! regulations with drastic clauses provid- > ing.for. the disqualification of tho guilty, i In .some of tho Australian show rings i this ovil'has'been noticed already, and • the committees have not taken a stand : against it. They ought to ceo the daiiger . of the ovil, which roots very deeply. It ; has been suggested that the societies could

Freven t, any such abuses if they instituted ' special-classes in which these sheep : would be shorn under the auspices of the • .society one year.-mul exhibited the fol- ;■ lowing year, special. earmarks being used

■ to prevent any substitution of'animals, j. This is a good suggestion. The trouble i is that, these faked exhibits' often, take

; the. eye of the judge more effectively : than tile sheep which havo been fairly j prepared, when, if' (hoy were honestly ! handled, they wnnld not by a match for | the animals which proved to ho unsuc- | ressfnl. Results of this sort often goad men on.to follow suit, and then thowholo : Imsiueis becomes a test of the skill of j tho . falters, with the sheep themselves i only as iv sort of tccandiU'V considcra- ; tion.

, MERINO BREEDERS EXAMPLE. Referring principally to Australia, tho ' "writer savs: "It is to tho credit of the ! -merino men that they have not. to any ; extent indulged in these nefarious practices. ... , The Sydney ami Melbourne j Associations have both set themselves f against, any illegal practices in these ! classes, and it is to be hoped that thev ; will not yield to the demands which the ; inkers may ho expccted to make if they j zee any chance of succeeding. One of ; the regulations for tho forthcoming show at Sydney provides that no exhibits shall : be oiled or dressed with anv foreign i matter, or be trimmed, except'for plucks ; and dags. So far as British breeds aro ; concerned, however, these conditions are I not enforced. It would appear that th.> | framers of the schedule were open to . give the trimmer in one section a chanc* which is denied in another. Unless there ; is a vigorous sland taken against the ; looseness there will be as much trouble ; necessary to eradicate it as has been ex- ;; pejienoed m other countries, and then ; toero is no certainty that it will be got • rid of. In all classes sheep should b« ; sh ®«'n as naturally as possible. J n En"land, the practice is at such a pitch now thai the colouring completely changes : the natural appearance of tho exhibit, ant as a result every person concerned is : fooled by the tnckery. The longer tho ;M'l °? to . o::i5l: f ! lc more difficult it i\ili be to make any headway against

; „i,T r ' 15 i I11;ln , 1 , 0 desires to make the cheapest pork, the bnest pr.rk, and nro- ; il.uco hogs that shall be in the best po.;- ! Bible state of health and vigour, must , include lucerne in his calculation." This ! " 'Be conclusion of the senior editor of : Hoards Dairyman," and wherever ; thoroughgoing tests have been made they '• 'have confirmed that conclusion. At the : Kansas, experiment station n test showed that a gam of 8001b. of pork whs made , from a ton of alfalfa hay, and about ; tho same amount from an area of alfalfa pasture. One hundred pounds of alfalfa hay in another experiment saved • OGIb. of corn. A.t that rate an acre of alfalfa, yielding four tons of hay, would pvoduco 10001b. of pork. Tho preliminary statistics of the West . Australian _whe.it harvest are much below the estimate. The area cut for grain was 580,508 acres, yielding 5,885,777 buslt- : els, an avorag'o of 10.lt bushels nor acre, shewing an increase of 131,050 acros. 283,150!! bushels, and a decreased average of ■ 2.3(1 bushels. The area cut for hay was j 134,501 acres, yielding 110,121 tons., show- ; ing increases of 32,911 acres and 11,172 : tons, whilo the yield was 1.1 tons per acre, a decrease of .2 tons per acre,