THE RIGHT SHEEP TO BREED.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3122, 19 July 1892, Page 3

THE RIGHT SHEEP TO BREED.

TO TIIE EDITOR. Sir, —When I was preparing my first shol at the Lincolns, I asked myself, What soil of a reply shall I Ret Will the enemy fir* a volley, or will they bring up their heaviest Run? If the latter, then "'Seddon" will bo its name, and I was mightily tiskled when yonr issue of the 2Sth ult. brought to public gaze the interesting and most courteous letter of Mr S. T. Seddon. I must, however, take great exception to that statemont in his letter where ho savs, " Mr McNicol's letter bristles with factn in support of the opinion generally held in this district, and no one has controverted his facts." Great Scott! is that so? Is the opinion of Mr John Grigg, of Longbeaeh, and other Southern breeders of no value ? Did not " Sheep Fanner " say something worth listening to ? Was not my own contribution worth consideration ? If Mr McNicol killed us " Down " men so stone dead, where was the necessity for Mr Seddon to put his armour on and slay the. slain? No, no, that game of brag will not do, and the heavy metal brought to bear against me is proof positive that my shot has gone right home. The breeders of the Lincolns may yet take heart of grace, for they will have plenty of time to seli their present flocks before the Downs are sufficient in number to seriously interfere with them ; and if they Have patience and wait, they will yet find what other people have found before, and what that was I will illustrate by anecdote, thus : An old farmsr was noted throughout bis district by almost always getting the very top market price for any stock he sold. Many were the devices of his neighbours to know the great secret. At last, one evening, when the old man had wanned the cockles of his heart by sundry brandies hot in commemoration of a most gloriously successful sale, a friend put it to him straight, " Tell us, farmer, how is it you always get the top price for your stock 1 " Replied the farmer, " I'll; tell thee, lad, I waits until I've fund a fool so let the Lincoln breeders wait and they also will find plenty of Of course, Mr Seddon marie a little bit of fun out of my figures, He was quite welcome to all he got, but both he and I are " too old in the tooth " to be led off the track by such little pleasantries. I raid, acd say again, that Downs give a greater percentage of lambs than Lincolns ; I said, and say again, that Downs give earlier lambs than Lincolns ; I said, and say again, that a given quantity of land will carry at least 25 per cent, more Downs than Lincolns ; and in reckoning only 4s per head difference between the early and late lambs, everyone must know I was understating tiie case. I note Mr Seddon says that his own Lincoln ewes have averaged abont 120 per cent, increase. I do not doubt it for a moment, but that flnck is chiefly a stud flock (and what that means most of us know), but I was reckoning the ordiuary flocks of the country where the Lincoln ram is used. This, of course, is the only fair way to reckon increase, and I am convinced that in crediting such flocks with 100 per cent, increase, I did more than justice to them; on the other hand,l am equally convinced that in giving the percentage of Down increase at 125, I was underrating their increase,and I base that assertion on my own personal experience; on my farm in Worcestershire—the last year I was in England —with my flock of Shropshire Downs, I cut and tailed 151 per cent, increase, and even then 1 lost some lambs from excessive and constant rains; and this was not a stud flock. The same year I visited a friend's farm the first day his Shropshire ewes began lambing, and bis five first ewes had the following lambs One ewe had 1, three ewes had 3 each, and one ewo had 4 lambs, so that live ewes had 14 lambs; these sheep (both ram and ewes) were pure Shropshire!). Mr Seddon says: "I will leave the question of 'freezers' untouched/' Of course he rlid, he is too honourable a man to wilfully mislead anyone; but •'hat is the first question of all others that must have pre-eminence. What market are we breeding sheep for, our own or export? The latter most certainly, and that market says. "we will only give you top market price for sheep of the Down breed ; " are we such idiots as to tell the English consumer that he doesn't know what he wauts ? What has absolutely killed the Australian export of mutton at a. paying price?—its Merino sheep; and the Lincoln-Merino is only one peg above it in quality. What is the state of the Australian flock master at the. present time? Why, they are now proposing to cross their Merinos with the !ongwools, and next, to subsidise tho frozen mutton from funds provided by an increased stock tax ; and what is the position now ? Australia has about 40,000,000 sheep, the Argentine alike number, and New Zealand and the Falkland Islands have about 20,000,000 ; so that roughly speaking, the increase from 100,000,000 sheep will in the near future be frozen for export; what will be the result? There will be such an onormous accumulation rf frozen carcases, all on tho same dead low level quality of the Merino and Lincoln-Merino, that sales will only he mado nt extreme low prices, What is the remedy ? The purchase of Down sheep of both sexes where possible, or at least the use of Down rams on such ewes as described in my last; then, with our paddocks of English grasses, clover, roots, etc. to feed upon, we can send into the Homo market a carcase that shall defy the competition spoken of above, and that will bring a profitable return to the owners. Mr Seddon wonders if I am a breeder of Downs. No, not hero ; and if auyone asks me which ie the best breed, then I reply : I am not going to inaugurate " a battle of the Downs." But if I am asked, how many of the Down breed are good ? then I will reply with another anccdote which everyone can apply. My father—then farming in Northamptonshire—had engaged a new shepherd, and the following conversation took place between them :—Pater : " Why, Tom, they tell mo yon have had as many wives as Henry the Bth ! " Tom : "Dunno, Meister. how many had he?" Pater: " Seven, Tom : did yon havo as many?" Tom: " Hes, Meister, Ees." Pater: "Good Lord (happy thought)— how muny of them were good ?" Tom : "All on 'etn. Meister, all on 'em." Sol say of the Down, they are all good, and stand high above all others for increase and Mutton.