VERMONT MERINO IN QUEENSLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2010, 1 September 1892, Page 7

VERMONT MERINO IN QUEENSLAND.

(Queenslander.)

The Vermont (American) merino is very much in evidence in Queensland at the present time, and, strange to say, some of those with whom it is now most in favour were~at one time its bitterest opponents. The type \was very different from Australians' preconceived notions of a true merino, and yet the Vermont is of purer Spanish descent than the Australian merino, the latter having come down to us through German and other European flocks of very heterogeneous description. It was by many thought that although a first cross of the Vermont on the Australian produced a very heavy fleece they would * ultimately work deterioration in our flocks, ignoring the" fact that given bulk and density, softuess and general refinement of quality would follow as a reßult of our genial climate. The first of the Vermont blood introduced into Queensland were a number of half-bred rams on to a run in the Warrego district, and these were roundly abused. Their owner even half repented of his bargain until the clip from their progeny not only greatly exceeded in weight that from the other sheep on the run, but actually brought more per pound at the London sales. As an experiment Messrs Marshall and Slade coupled some 20 ewes of their Glengallan flock with a Vermont ram belonging to Mr^ Andrew Tobin, and so far from the progeny of the second and subsequent generations showing deterioration, a seven-eighths ram of this cross was sold by Mr Slade at last year's Bowen Bark show for lOOgs to Mr Webb, of Bathursr, and that ram has since carried off the championship at the Bathuvst and Orange shows, and was also at the late sheep show in Sydney in the company of the pick of New South Wales flocks. Sir Francis Murphy and Sons have formed the nucleus of a Vermont flock at .Northampton Downs Run on the Warrego, and Messrs Stuart Bros, and M'Caughey have also adopted them to a large extent on Rockwood station. But perhaps none of our breeders have gone so largely into the breeding of Vermont merinos as Messrs Winter, Newton, and Co., of Ambo, in the Muttaburra district, and that firm has demonstrated the fact that they are eminently suited to the climate and pasturage of our great western plains. There is now an extensive flock on that property, the nucleus of which was drawn from the well-known Vermont flocks of Messrs Macfarland, Baroogo; Hay, Boomanoomana ; and Hay, Collindia on the Murray ; and sheep from the Ambo flock have already made their mark in the showyards in the west. At the late Muttaburra show the Ambo Vermonts took five first prizes and the ewe championship, and at the same show a firot j

prize pen of three rams from Kensington Downs contained two Vermonts purchased from the Ambo stud flock. From the reports of the recent ram sales in Sydney it appears that this firm was the largest buyers of the imported Vermonts, including two rams at a cost of 130gs and 115gs respectively. These sheep passed through Brisbane in the Fitzroy on the 16th inst. en route to their destination at Ambo, and were the subject of considerable interest to a number of sheep-breeders who inspected them. At the Sydney sales a pure Vermont that had been purchased by Mr Cox at a previous sale in Sydney, and had been used in his flock, was sold for 570g9. The Vermont rams are thoroughly masculine in character, as Dr Randall, the author of the " American Shepherd," says of them: "They look as if they could butt a town down." One of their principal characteristics U their great flow of yolk, and .so far from this being an objection, it is one of their strongest recommendations to the dry climate of our western plains, a plentiful supply of yolk being essentially necessary to counteract the heat of tho sun and to nurture and keep up a healthy and robust fleece.