NEW ZEALAND SHEEP.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XLI, Issue 5634, 24 April 1909, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND SHEEP.

AN ENGLISH BREEDER'S EULOGY.

Hale and hearty, after farming for well on half a centiury in Cumberland and -Surrey (Bng.), Mr Wan. Norman id now travelling the world .on»pleasure beat, and incidentally learning' soanetih'ing of the farming activities in each country he visits. He has toured Canada, the Argentine, and Australia, and in a recent six weeks spent a profitable sojourn. in New Zealand. Since then he has confided to an Australian pressman some of his impressions ; and his remarks, •coming as they do from a practical agriculturalist, will be read with interest by all fartmers.

New Zealand, he said, appealed to him more than any other oountay he had visited. In its climate, its landscape features, arid in the appearance of the flocks and herds, it was. the nearest approach to Great Britain he had met with in , his New Zealand, he said, was ah ideal sheepL reeding country ; none of its flocks seem to be affected ' with, loot-rot, while its English fcyreeds were superior (o anything he had seen in.. Australia. If the breeders in the Dominion only sorted their flocks more carefully and judiciously, he was sure that, with the* distinct varieties in evidence, they could carry on"* without importing any further stud sheep from Emglaitd. On one» of the Government Experimental farms a flock of Southdowns was amongst the best of that class he had ever seen anywhere. Although the old-fashioned bl-ie-faced Leicester was :n evidence, he ii>x-l I een fefoomewhat surprised" to find that the farmers of the Dominion had not gone m ior the breeding of Border Leicesters.- Neither had- he seen any Oxford Downs sheep, wjhich in. England arid Scotland cross . with any otfher description for fat lamb purposes.