SHEEP-BREEDING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 9398, 27 April 1891, Page 5

SHEEP-BREEDING.

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

[from oue own correspondent.]

WELLINGTON, April 25,

At the last Wellington Agricultural Show, a pen of wethers, exhibited by Mr Lysaght, of Hawera, took the Loan and Mercantile Company’s Fifteen Guinea Cup, two pens of Mr Garforth’a, from your part of the Colony, coming next. Mr Lysaght’s sheep were a cross of Hampshire Downs and Leicesters, Mr Garforth’s were Southdowns. These sheep were all sent Home in the Matatna, the Company sending instructions for a special report. That report has just been received here from Messrs Blowfeld and Lisenden, of the Central Meat Market, London. Itprononncea the three lots to be "as prize sheep for agricultural shows as near perfection as possible, and certainly the best bred mutton we have ever seen from the Colonies.” The report then proceeds:— "The decision as to which of these parcels ia the best would rest entirely with the judges, as different men have differentopinions as to the various breeds of sheep, but we ourselves should give the preference to the pure Southdowns, as sheep suitable for the London market. All these Kls consist of sheep too heavy and too >r the ordinary purchaser, but if as well bred sheep can be produced, not fattened for show purposes, weighing from €olb to 681 b per carcase, it is onr opinion such mntton would realise, on the London market, prices equal to the best Canterbury mutton of the same weight. But it is necessary to impress upon growers the importance of keeping the breed as pure as the prize sheep, and of about the above-mentioned weights. Regarding the three parcels from this standpoint, it is onr opinion, as well: as that of the majority of the meat salesmen, butchers, and consumers, whose opinions we have obtained of these sheep, that the sheep of the class A and B (Mr Garforth’s Southdowns), at the weights before mentioned, are rather more suitable than the others to the requirements of the market. We may add that, before our making thia report, these parcels were brought under the notice of some of the best breeders of sheep and judges ,of jauttonthat wo-have in this country.”