OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2622, 15 June 1904, Page 8

OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

(From Oui> Special Correspondent.) BRADFORD, April 15. NOMENCLATURE OF BREEDS. As we soberly think about the sheep and wool trade of -th-a world we cannot help being struck, with the almost endless variety of breeds and qualities. During the last 30 years these have increased! continuously, i until one to-day begins to wonder if the ©ndi of the ohapter has been reached. He would . be a bold man if lie dared' to say that wy ' have too many breeds of sheep or too many qualities, R.nd the fact is remarkable that Nature seems to have evolved a sheep suited to (the special requirement and natural conditions of every country in the world. A foreign sheep farmer has raised' ifre ques- ■ tion in regard to the variety of names given to merinos as distinguishing them from ea«h otlfer. He r&gardr iUtese n.ame3, < as Aye understand him, a3 superfluous and '. somewhat misleading-. In this matter, hovfeyej, we nrusfc follow the Ifpid of briers. If any Br«edg-r of xp&rin&3 Eas ~~ "iVori^d on -a certain line* for -1 many yearß^itLauJ regar^ to the w.ork of « others who fcaVe Kngt. {ollowing on therr i ■ own lino of HApWenWnfc, pTvarkt^onuthew , cannot fail to be a'SonsyJerable^ differSitCj* - in many points, whicn may, irf fagfr> become i sug^uait to fSuad, a family; or strain upon. ', Tkia has hajupeiffed no* only in sheep, but !

with cattle, as in regard to the Booth and Bates strains of shorthorns, each of which had markedi special differences from the others. So these went by the names of Bates's or Booth's shorthorns. Sheep are doubtless more easily impressed by the hand or mind of a breeder than the larger animals are, and it is impossible for any two men or intelligence and experience to take each a flock and breed it closely or otherwise, not knowing what the other is doing all the time, without having two ilooks quite different from, each other in rr any points. Now, this has been the case with our merinos, and we have, as a reeulr, a number of strains of the French merino, or longwool, or Delaine sheep, each of which the breeder thinks the best in existence. And it is so for him and others who have worked with him m this lino. We must think of a sheep in two ways, as a wool-bearer, and as a marketanimal. Sometimes we get the excellencies of each in one breed or strain; and as there is a very varied class of fabric made from meiino wool, as long as this i 3 in fashion its manufacture will create a, demand for a special sheep, which has been bred fOi.- the express purpose of supplying the demand for a special grade of wool. This necessity does not occur with other animals, except, perhaps, -with goats, whose fleece, and skiu even, is desired for various manufactures. For instance, the short, fine wool of a brood of sheep in Asia is so much desired by the furriere that tho l-owly-born lambs are slaughtered for their sl'ins only, and this breed, or strain of bited, is reared especially to supply this demand. Now, the woolbuyer, who is supposed to know a good deal about sheep, wanting a special class of wool, will go to the locality where these various strains of merino are kept, .and get just what he \Vc\nts, and can afford to pay more for it than otherwise. It is a matter of business solely, and if these Epecial strains of merino wrre> not profitable to the breeders urd feeders cf them, we may be sure they would not txist; and if any shepherd likes -me of t'-iese varieties — let us say of the Taurvacian or Vermont merinos — all he has to do is to seek the right market for his fleeces, keeping from all others, of course, to avoid spoiling his wool by mixtures, and he won't go astray as long as he follows in tho line by carefully reinforcing his flocks by the pure bloodf of the strain he is cultivating. It ig a dangerous thing for anyone n&t a skilled and experienced breeder to depxrfc evei! so slightly from, the line of breeding he has chosen. There must be special breeders to keep up this line, and the flocks chosen from the special strain must be kept reinforced from the original source. Experience has proved over and over again that- when shoepbreeders chop and change about first to one style of ram and then to another they get . a class of sheep of a very unsatisfactory character, and this is the road! to- nowhere. Select a good paying breed, and! one that has done well for farmers in your own locality, and stick to it.