246 [Senate 



does not succeed, yet examples may be cited to show that great sue" 

 cess has sometimes followed its adoption. 



Mr. Twynam, of the county of Hants, England, has for twelve or 

 fourteen years been engaged in breeding a race of sheep from an ori- 

 ginal cross of the Cotswold and South Down. His sheep sustain a 

 very high character, and he has carried many prizes on them. Count 

 de Gourcy, in the account of his late tour through England and Scot- 

 land, speaks of them in the highest terms, both those which he saw 

 in the possession of Mr. Twynam, and of the same stock which he 

 saw on the pattern farm of Lord Ducie, under the direction of Mr. 

 Morton. The Count states, that Mr. Twynam has for a few years 

 past, sold many of his sheep to be sent to Australia, India, &c.* 



Another striking example, is that of the Anglo-Merino sheep of 

 Lord Western. He commenced his experiments about the year 1812, 

 with some sheep presented him by George III., which that monarch 

 had received from Spain. The peculiar race to which he has given 

 the name of Anglo-Merino, were produced by a cross of the Spanish 

 with the English long-wooled sheep — the object of Lord Western be- 

 ing, as he has declared, the production of a Merino fleece on a Lei- 

 cester carcase. His first crosses were with the Leicesters, and after- 

 wards with the Cotswolds and the Kent long-wooled sheep. His 

 success, up to this time, has been very satisfactory. He has obtain- 

 ed a carcase weighing at two years old, from a hundred and twenty 

 to a hundred and thirty-five pounds nett, selling at a high price to the 

 butchers, and has obtained at the same time a fleece averaging nearly 

 six pounds of washed wool, commanding a price in market nearly 

 equal to full blood Merino. His flock of breeding ewes, of the cross- 

 bred stock, is about eighty in number. 



It is not now intended to recommend these modes of breeding, but 

 to show from these examples, (and others might be given,) that men 

 who thoroughly understand the business, with a sufficient range for 

 selection, may effect improvement by either of them. But the breed- 

 er must not be confined to too small a number of animals — he should 

 have so many to choose from that there may be an opportunity of ob- 

 taining the points he wishes for, without concomitant defects. Range 

 for the selection is very important, and much disappointment has fre- 

 quently been experienced from inattention to this particular. Some 

 seem to have an idea that to obtain a superior stock it is only neces- 

 sary to procure a single pair of animals of the breed desired, and leave 

 them to an indiscriminate copulation. The expectations of farmers 

 are often highly raised from the circumstance of a few improved ani- 

 mals being brought into their neighborhood, and it appears to be sup- 

 posed that in the course of a few generations their whole stock will 

 possess the blood and perfections of the new breed. These expecta- 

 tions are seldom realized. From the limited chance for selection, 

 animals having the same defects are permitted to breed together, and 

 the consequence is that these defects become more and more con- 



• The Mark-Lane Express of May 13th last, gives an account of a show of animals 

 which had just been held in England, at which Mr. Twynam carried the prize for the 

 *' best ram of any kind, breed or age." 



