254 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



corded, or for a certainty will 1)0 recorded, making this a condition in the pur- 

 chase. 



The time is not coming but is now that men cannot afford to invest their 

 money in sheep which are called full blood. As in cattle so in sheep. No 

 sane man will pay the price of pedigreed cattle, or those recorded, for those 

 that cannot be recorded, and why should he for shec})? In this as in all other 

 branches of business, some will make it a success while others will not. 



Almost any man who will take good care of his ilock and buy, when needed, 

 a good male, can raise a good, profitable flock of sheep, for avooI and mutton, 

 but tiie same plans will not meet with the same general good results in the 

 thoroughbred. Improvement is the watchword, and it is a much harder task 

 to improve upon that which is already very good than upon that which is not so 

 good. With a strong-bred Hock of ewes it requires a much stronger bred male 

 to make the coveted improvement. And right here is one of the great diffi- 

 culties, the scarcity of strongbred males, tliose which have great prepotency or 

 power of transmission of desirable qualities. No nnvn who invests his means 

 in thoroughbred sheep should for a moment think his task done when he has 

 secured his flock. He is just getting into trouble, and to extricate himself and 

 make his investment prolitable and lionorable, he should inform himself upon 

 the history of his flock, their general character, how they had been bred, and 

 what is needed to produce the desirable improvement, and then secure it, if 

 possible, either by purchase or hire. If a meclianic or inventor wishes to con- 

 struct a steam engine, he must flrst have in his mind a model, perfect in all its 

 parts, must see it in motion, know just where a cylinder should be placed, 

 where a wheel should be located, a burr fastened, how much steam it will bear, 

 what its capacity should be, and then go to work and apply the means to secure 

 his object. Just so with the breeder of sheep, lie should have in his mind 

 his model, such a sheep as suits him, and then try and breed it. If he fails 

 once or a dozen times, he is only repeating the experience of all those who have 

 tried the same thing; and he has this to comfort him, he is all the time learn- 

 ing, by his mistakes as well as his successes, and, with perseverance and good 

 judgment, he will in time succeed. And right here this thought presents 

 itself, that in sheep breeding, as in many other pursuits, fashion has some- 

 thing to do with our models. 



If the demand is for the largest amount of wool to the least weight of car- 

 cass, some will work in that direction, and in fact, not many years since such, 

 to quite an extent, was the practice. But as wool was obtained at the expense 

 of constitution, size and physical power, the practice was discontinued, and 

 now it would seem to be, how much size, constitution, wool and otlier desirable 

 qualities can be combined in one sheep. A very good idea, I think, as one 

 strong trait of the Yankee is to see, at the end of all breeding or working, the 

 coveted reward in dollars and cents as well as honor and renown. 



To-dny, if the demand is for long, light fleeced wool, and some of the solons 

 engaged in buying our wool say it is, many are striving to satisfy the call, and, 

 to some extent, the demand is for a long, dry, white stanle of wool in stock 

 rams, and some breeders are trying to comply with such demand, knowing 

 that tliey do so at the expense of thickness of fleece, sliortncss of leg.s and the 

 stylish form of a true Merino, and many other qualities which go to make a 

 good sheep. The i)urchaser of such stock sheep can, in a lew years, get what 

 he sought after, but he ha.s secured it by the loss of a pound or two of wool per 

 head, besides injuring his flock in many other dii'ections. 



One of the flrst requisites in a stock ram should be pedigree. There should 



