BLEDISLOE MEDAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23504, 15 November 1939, Page 13

BLEDISLOE MEDAL

SERVICE TO FARMING AWARD TO OTAGO MAN SUCCESSFUL SHEEP BREEDER [by TELEGKAPH iIMtESS association] CHRISTCHURCH, Tuesday It is announced that Mr. H. J. Andrew, of Mahcno, North Otago, has been awarded the Bledisloo Medal this year, for n former student of Lincoln College who has rendered signal service lo tlio farming community. The medal was offered by Lord Bledisloe when he was Governor-General of the Dominion for annual competition, and has been a much-coveted honour among a large body of former students associated with the farming industry. Mr. Andrew is probably the most successful breeder of stud sheep who has passed through Lincoln College. Ho belongs to a family distinguished for three generations as breeders of sheep. More than half a century ago his grandfather, Mr. W. B. Andrew, was ii) the forefront of sheepmen in the South Island, and was the fourth to register a flock of English Leicesters in Canterbury. The skill of the original Andrew has been inherited by tlio grandson. Show records and sales, more particularly in Southdowns, place Mr. H. J. Andrew in a leading New Zealand position as a studmaster. Few men in the Dominion have his genius for mating to develop tlio typo desired in a flock. For moro than 20 years, Punchbowl Southdowns have been exhibited at tho Christehureh Show, and Mr. Andrew's success can bo gauged from the fact that tho shield for most points in Southdowns, which has been in competition since 1925, has the name of H. J. Andrew inscribed on it 12 times, and in two of tho years he refrained from showing. At the last, Royal Show on the Christehureh showgrounds he was first and second in every class in which lie competed, taking all tho championships, and this in the face of strong competition from leading North Island studs. At the two last Royal Shows ho was equally successful. To such a degree of perfection has Mr. Andrew brought his Southdowns that many competent judges who know the breed in its native habitat express tho opinion quite freely that Punchbowl sheep would hold their own at the English Royal Show. Recently Mr. Andrew established a small liyeland flock, and he promises to bo as successful with this breed as with Southdowns.