THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1914. BUILDING UP A FLOCK.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 27 February 1914, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1914. BUILDING UP A FLOCK.

There is no subject which is of greater interest in a pastoral district like the Wairarapa than that of laying the foundation of and building up a good sheep flock. Many eheepfarmers have started well, and have failed lamentably. Others, from a comparatively indifferent start, have built up a splendid flock. It has been the experience of "most studmastere that after the foundation has been laid it has been necessary to pull down some of the materials and build tip again. Even the most successful in inbreeding have experienced this. A writer in a southern contemporary says he has epoken to one or two of the leading merino sheepbreeders in the United States, whose flocks date back over-a century, and who can trace the pedigree of every one,of their sheep, and they had a similar experience. Yet no one has been able to explain the reason of it. The only feasible theory is that the Spanish flocks must at one time have had an admixture of foreign blood in them. There are some breeders who

are of opinion that it is a feasible thing to staiip out faults or other inherent qualities of ancestors. But sciontifio investigations have proved that this is impossible. Atavism—tho recurrence of any peculiarity or disease of an ancestor in a later generation—can lay dormant, perhaps for a century or more, but it is bound at some time or the other to come to life again, and atavism applies to all organisms. When this fact is impressed on tho mind, and stays there, studbreeders will cease to wonder at tho occasional breakdown of their preconceived notions. Tho southern writer quotes examples of this that have occurred within his expcrienco in some of the best-known stud flocks, dating from .30 to 60 years back. Tho best ram in the flock was mated with ewes specially picked out to reproduce the most desirable qualities A-nongs't the ewes i was a noted prize-taker, that had al- | ready given birth to two lambs, both rams, which promised to equal their .sire in all his best points. Consequently the "third lamb was anxiously looked for. When it appeared it turned out to be again a ram lamb, most peculiarly marked, with black and white stripes. Tho ewe had never been out of the stud paddock except to be shorn. Besides, there was not such a thing as a black ram anywhere around tho run. The owner could not account for it. To guard against a possible mistake in the future, tho lamb was killed before it left tho yard. A second instance happened many hundreds of miles from the first. Again one of the best stud owes in the flock, a champion prize-taker two years in succession, matect with a grand champion ram, gave iJfrth to a ewe lamb with a brownish face. The pedigree of sire and dam was undeniable. The lamb was kept to see if the mark would disappear. By next year it had got darker, but she had such a fine fleece that the owners decided to send it to tho show, merely to obtain an expression from the judges. To their astonishment the hogget ewe obtained first prize, the judges evidently not giving sufficient consideration to tho brown face. For further experiment sake, this ewe was mated with her sire. The result was a black lamb. Whose was the fault on the sire's or dam's side ? Possibly.it was on the latter's side, as the rest of the ewes mated with the same ram all tKrew white lambs. At the same time, both ewe and ram were descended from a ram used in the flock 21 years previously. These two instances of atavism should prove the difficulty of building up a stud flock on the assumption that once a good foundation has been laid the rest is easy. There is a vulgar saying: "Every dog has his day." But it is aptly applicable to studbreeding, and we see plenty of instances of it in tho show and sale yards. But with a good studbreeder it is always a case of the dog coming to life again. It may take, perhaps, two or throe years, but he will soon find out what ewe or ram is responsible, and out of the flock he or she will have to go.