LEICESTER SHEEP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 5008, 8 March 1877, Page 3

LEICESTER SHEEP.

TO TEE EL'IXOR OF THE LYTTELtOX ZTXXS.

gjj. —As our ram Uir is approaching, it may net be unprofitable to some of your readers if X communicate tbc opinion of an experienced gl eep farmer in England, who has been miking it ht 3 business to stu :y the subject at the shows of tho Royal Agricultural Socie'y. as to the proper ties of the Leicester breed of ■sheep, Hes..ysia effect — 11 Au English breeder, if asied to j .'.go Leicester, would never look at the class of sh-«p chiefly seen under that name in Canterbury, i hey are never shown in the same class here; they a o iloider Leice-ters, such as are bred by lord i'olwartb, Duke of Hamilton, Bosaiquet of ‘.ocj, John Dinning, .to. Of the pare English Leiceners the breeders'are confined to about half a docea, and they are used amongst all other breeds . coisioually, and through dis ant crosses. I»; tuit the judges at y. ur last Tim.iru showweoof roe old sort—iu favour of the Border Leicester! .they applied the expressions ' too small," ‘too L. ely bred," &c, to the Englis i Leicester shown, ■-h.-y acted m ignorance. Ibo Loicesters at the '.■’ ’yd Agricultural Show, at Birmingham, wero as h.iely bred and not a bit larger. Want of condit-oc, unevenness of fleece, and heavy bone sra tho points that will bo found oßiLatly recurring in the larger classes of suvop. and tho only m-tho 1 of restoring syunidv of fleece and carcase is by crossing the big sheep .. i h, the pure English Leicester. It is the old -v.-v, that a sheep to bo good must bo big, in theiv.s of colonial judges—a most mistaken theory. .1: 1.10 English shows it very rarely happens that fin largest annuals are tho price-takers ; much t; reverse. Even at SmithfieM the heaviest, pnvo rej’Cted in favour of quality erd breeding. Too pens of fat Lticestets, 21 mmths old, wvgs about two hundred pounds (fiOolbsl per head loro ■ weight. You cannot in a 'A lon- afford t> gr..w such largo sheep as at Home, whor. they are used chiefly to put manure—in the shape of c-Ve and turnip-—into the ground Tho grmt thing is 'or your breeders of the pure Leicester not to be turned from the right course by what other folk- say c • think. Their flecks will bo worthless in Connor;-.-a in a few years" t me, and th.-it only salvation will to a cross with the pure anniul."’ liolieviug that this is sound advice, by which, if acted on, a great benefit miy a- erne to the co-.i.try aud to individuals, I hi -e v.-utured to muse it known. —1 am, Ac.. l?KO BNu PUBLL 1 h p.S.—As wo have at i iir -h. ws a class for pure Southdowu sheep, and another class for i\ f L Hamps’dr-, and other mix-si breeds, why .-h u.d title h a Valuable aui ■> at as th*> pnre Kv c-i-i I.oieester iu>t vn a c.ass to itself separate lion the Border Leicester '!