SHEEP-BREEDING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1808, 7 February 1884, Page 2

SHEEP-BREEDING.

TO THE EDITOR. Silt,— I soe in your i^sue of the 24th January a letter signed " Warwick," in leply to " Shaftesbury," which is well calculated to induce moie interest in the breeding a class of sheep to suit our requirements, and thereby to do good. It would occupy too much ->pace to comment upon it fully, but I would like to say a woul regarding the instance he gives of the way. '• An eminent Frenchman" took toimpioving his flock, as it is contrary to generally received opinions of breeding, notwithstanding the authoiity with which it is backed up. First he began uith an old worn out flock, which had been bred in and in for generations, crossing them with a cross-bred English ram ot ?ome soit. Ihe fust cross was a marvellous success ; the s;cond was, equally good, but the lambs pined away after weaning. He does not .say what the second cross was, but with ci oss-bred big English rams they weie not likely to be good, and the meiino pastures might, not have been equal to the laiger lambs, and the amount of crossing he went into before attaining bin object was wonderful. The shorter way, and the way likely to have occuiied to a breeder, would have to begin with pure-bred rams, and witli sound, healthy, pure - bred ewes, when, with proper selection, he would soon work up an even flock of half-orthree-quaiter breds, or any type he required. I know there was, and is a prejudice against tin's, but I have .seen it successfully done with Leicester and Cheviot, and with Leicestei and Merino so far as tried, and which I believe to be a better crop than the Down Merino. The Downs have been much improved lately if the wool is not very defective. With regard to what he says of the heads of some lambs being almost black like Downs, I moy remark the first lamb a white-faced ewo has from a black-faced ram is nearly white in the head, I the second much darker, and the third al- ! most like the ram, the ewe becoming more of the same blood every lamb she has. As an encouragement to young breeders, I gne an instance of what can be done in that way. The late Jones Webb, who established the South Down breed, and was considered the best breeder of Downs in the world, told me he began the world with five ewe lambi ho received from bis father, from which he establiehed the f.u -named Babrmgham flock, beating the Duke of Richmond and all coiners at the shows. He took a ram to France for which he refused £400, and afterwards made a present of it to the Emperor, and at the following exhibition he took over some hundieds which he sold at very high prices.— l am, «fee. TiiO.s Muruai.