GROSS-BREEDING SHEEP.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 14 August 1890, Page 8

GROSS-BREEDING SHEEP.

By F. A. Joseph.

I have bean asked to contribute something on this subject, which is of very great importance to ub in a country where cheep-breeding is our most important industry. The question has both a scientific and a practical side. I will deal with the scientific first. Now that the doctrine of evolution, or the theory of descent with modification, as it is sometimes called, is triumphant all along the lines I need not apologise for BtatiDp tbat it has &n important bearing upon the question at issue. Modification of animal types is brought about slcwly by the gradual adjustment of variations of structure to meet some change in the environment, under what has been termed natural selection ; but such modifications are produced much more rabidly under human direction by what might be termed artificial selection. Anyone who is acquainted with the contrasting variety of types in domestio pigeons, and realises that all of these have been evolved from a common ancestral type— the wild rock pigeon of Europe— and that within at least historical times, will readily see tbat great things can be done in the way of producing new breeds of animals under careful human selection. All our breeds of domestio animals have been so produced, and many of the most favoured breeds have been only comparatively recently produced. As far as our breeds of domestio sheep are ooncerned, they are generally supposed to have been descended from at least two ancestral forma of wild sheep. Of course it is not now possible to fix with certainty the anoestry of the sheep, but there are two wild forms whioh give us the moEt probable due. In our search we must be guided largely by affinities in structure, and these point to the Argali, or wild sheep of Asia, and the Musmon, or wild sheep of Europe. The Argali possesses generic characters similar to those of the sheep. Ita chief distinguishing characteristics are the possession of enormous horns averaging a foot in oiroumference at the base, Bft to 4ft in length, spreading outward and banding forward at the tips. The horns nearly meet at the base. The animal is coated over with a short coat of hair covering a coat of soft white wool. The colour of the hair is brown, but it turns brownish-grey in winter. The female is a good deal Bmallor than tbe male, and the horns are more slender • and straighter. The Argali is about the size of a goat. It inhabits the mountains and elevated plains of Asia from the Caucasus eastward to K'imtßcbatktk. Those animals are agile as the chamois, and very strong, but timid as the hare on the least appearance of danger. They are Rregarions, and are generally found tin Binall flocks. During the rutting season the males fight desperately, butting with the forehead after the manner of a ram. An allied species, if not identical, is found in North Amerioa, inhabiting the loftiest mountain chain. It is larger than the Asiatic Arpali, and is Romewhat larger than the biggest domestio sheep. Its hair is reddish brown, but rather paler in winter. In sprinj? old rams are nearly white. These wild sheep go in flocks under the guidance of a leader. They have been domesticated, but not to any great extent,

The Musmon, or 'wild sheep of Europe, I* still found in the islands of Crete and Cyprus and in the mountains of Greece. It was also till quite reoently found in Corsica and Sardinia, in the interior mountains, and it was at one time abundant in Spain, if it does not still liDger in the mountains of Murqia. The Musraon is smaller than the Argali, and its horns are only about 2ft long, while the females are often hornless. The horns are very thick at the base, like those of the Argali, but turn inward? at the points. The coat is a brownish hair, covering a fine greycoloured wool. The Mußmon resembles the Argali in several important particulars, but it is a less hardy and less powerful animal^ They assemble in large flocks, especially in the summer months. The Musmon has been with great difficulty domesticated ; but it has been known to breed with the domestio sheep. From these wild sheep with their coats of half hair, half wool, to our domestio breeds with their coats of fine wool, a wide gulf appoarß to exist ; but the many affinities which the domestic sheep show with these wild sheep leave the question of their ancestry no longer a matter of mere speculation. So far the scientific side of the question ; now we must devote a little consideration to the practical side. It is too late in the history of (sheep breeding to begin de novo and try what we can produce from the wild sheep by careful selection. The process has been going on since the first wild men of Europe and Asia tamed the first wild Bheep. and we, in our more favoured day, have the improved material to work upon. The breedß of domestio sheep are not less various than the breeds of domestio pigeons, and bow far they are oapable of further modification it would be difficult to hazard an expression of opinion. Among extraordinary breeds, that may be likened to the pouter pigeons, are the fat-tailed sheep of Asia Minor and South Africa, and the fat-haunohed sheep of the area north of tbe Black Sea and Caspian, and in Asiatio Tartary. There is a race of sheep north of the Caspian whioh cornea nearest to the wild -sheep of Atria, of all domestio breeds. It possesses a coat of ooarse hairy wool of grey colour, and the horns are bent outward like those |of the Argali. A noteworthy circumstance is that the head of the male of this breed of sheep very strikingly resembles that so fiequently seen in Eastern' Boulpture. This race of Bheep is very "widely distributed, being found in a wide region extending aorosß to the Indus arid over "the greater part of India. Taking the evidence of anoier.t sculpture, we probably ha»e in this breed of sheep the first originally domesticated breed, which has not undergone appreciable development, on account of no studied selection having been made, and little change in environment. There are again distinct breeds of Bheep found in the Orkney and . Shetland Islands and in the Hebrides. These are not unlike goats, and [their coat is a mixture of hair and wool, the hair predominating in Bummer. These peculiar breeds are probably enough the result of unponscioun human selection, in conjunction with; the survival cf the fittest, these half hairy breeds having meantime reverted to the ancestral type in a remarkable degree. It is from a consideration of evidence of this kind that we get the clue to guide us in the elaboration of new breeds of animals. I make ,use of the word elaborations advisedly, as generally the work of selection requisite to produce a new breed ia nothing short of elaboration, although instances are on record where a new variety haß sprung suddenly into existence, as' in the case of the Ancon sheep of North America. These short- hgged sheep were descended from a single ram which accidentally appeared in a' flock' thai gave their owner some trouble from thejr straying habits. The farmer noted that a breed • like the short-legged variety- would give hipi' less' "trouble with his neighbours, bo he acted accordingly, and found to h^s - x delight jthat, among the progeny of the short-legged individual there were several similarly modified;. Here he had the material from which his new flock was in a short time derived.