293 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ing the entire period. Mr. Miller in his report averaged in three years 94G 

 days in milk; another breeder records full bloods per year, 358 days, grades 

 335, natives 265, and some breeders state that some of the full bloods have to 

 be forced dry. I consider this a good breed to cross upon natives, being the 

 purest breed — they impart at least six-eighths of their qualities to their 

 offspring. I have a pair of grade heifers sired by Spartan, imported by the 

 Fox Kiver Association, and registered in the Holstein herd -book, whose dams 

 were common natives. These heifers show good form, fine, soft hair, and with 

 the same care and feeding, have very far outstripped good natives of the 

 same age, and some grades and Short-horns. And the sire of those Short- 

 horns, the 2d Duke of Huron, is as fine an animal as can be found in this or 

 any other country. I consider it worthy of remark, in my conclusion, that 

 the Holstein, as far as my experience and observation go, is as good if not 

 the best breed for the farmer engaged in mixed husbandry, who wants the 

 heifers for cows and the steers for beef or workins: cattle. 



FINE WOOL HUSBANDRY. 



BY JUDGE W. W. STICKNET. 

 [Head at Lapeer Institute.] 



In this State the farms are, on the average, small, and the number of sheep 

 a man can keep will necessarily be small as compared to sections of country 

 where there are extensive barrens, or openings, for sheep farming, and as 

 most of our lands are of such a nature as to be suitable for the feeding of the 

 larger varieties of sheep, it has always been a mystery to me why so few of our 

 farmers raise long wooled sheep, or at least medium wooled, which would give 

 an average good fleece, and at the same time have some bulk of eatable mut- 

 ton to spare after the wool was off. I have been told that long wooled sheep 

 did not do well here, that the soil was not suitable, that the climate was not 

 such as they require, that they degenerated in one or two years. As far as 

 the soil is concerned there can be no possible objection. We have every 

 variety of soil fit for sheep pastures, especially long wooled. The soil and cli- 

 mate are identical with that of Ontario, where long and medium wools do as 

 well as in any country. As to degeneration, I have become satisfied that 

 careless feeding and selection in breeding is the cause. It makes little differ- 

 ence what stock you have, how pure in blood they are, want of proper care of 

 either long or short wools will soon cause them to degenerate, and we need 

 only look at the average flock of so-called native sheep in order to be con- 

 vinced that in the majority of instances the patience of nature even in the 

 sheep has been exhausted. As to the next point, selection in breeding, it is a 

 lamentable fact that inbreeding from inferior animals has been practised to 

 such an extent that in many instances we are no longer able to see the marks 

 of any distinct race of sheep. Nature always tends to revert to original types 

 when left to herself, and the farmer Avho is not careful to select the best ewes 

 and infuse new blood into his flock, from time to time, in the male, will be 

 sure to see this reversion in his flock. I am convinced that this is the cause 

 of degeneration in the flocks of long wooled sheep in this vicinity. 



