No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 779 



all sheepmen, both as to care and keep and judicious matings for re- 

 sult. 



This brings us down to the three heads under which we propose 

 to discuss the subject in hand: The breeder, his material, and the 

 principles governing his operations. 



THE BREEDER. 



Breeders may be classified as good, bad and indifferent. The good 

 breeder has his ideal and no influence swerves him from his purpose. 

 He shapes and moulds his animals as the potter does the clay and 

 establishes a breed line that can improve the breed or kind. The 

 bad breeder is one that has no ideal, no fixed type in mind. He goes 

 hither and yon and is swayed by every influence that crosses his 

 pathway. He has everything in moderate type and nothing that 

 stands for quality. The indifferent breeder is one who buys a strain 

 of blood or distinction that he fancies will be popular. He has no 

 knowledge of quality or blood line. With him a sheep is a sheep. 

 He mates with no other purpose than to preserve the blood and 

 breeds scalawags that are a stricture on their kind. 



Now who is qualified to be a good breeder? Not everybody. Great 

 breeders, like great artists and musicians, are to the calling born. 

 By this we mean that they must possess natural traits and gifts that 

 fit them for their mission. He must have an admiration for animals 

 that nothing can abate, love their companionship, and be happy and 

 patient while ministering to their wants and comfort. He must 

 readily individualize and discern that every animal has a form and 

 feature peculiarly its own, and grasp as by intuition that indefinable 

 something known as quality. He must be an idealist and fix in his 

 minds' eye the typical specimen, and have the creative genius to 

 group his material and produce the specimen. Education and ex- 

 perience will give him ripeness for his calling and give expecta- 

 tions of better things farther on. 



THE MATERIAL. 



Having a call to the work, the first move is to select the breed — 

 not breeds; one is enough. In this he should be guided by indi- 

 vidual taste, environment and prospective demand. Having set 

 tied this point, get acquainted with the breed or kind. Study their 

 history. Go up one side of the animal and down the other. Lay 

 hold with a tight grip of the great essentials of constitutional vigor, 

 size, form and fleece qualities and of what is of scarcely less im- 

 portance — fancy points that give finish and attractiveness to the 

 animal. Visit flocks of note and character. Ask a lot of ques- 

 tions, express very few opinions, and "saw a lot of wood'' as the say- 

 ing goes. Visit the fairs and watch the show ring and find out if 

 possible the whys and wherefores of the judge's action, more espe- 

 cially if he is a noted and successful breeder of the kind. Such men 

 are judges and their work educational. Do not buy until you 

 have confidence in your own judgment to select, and begin to paddle 

 your own canoe right from the start. Pin in your hat the motto 

 that the best are none too good and the best are the cheapest. Bet- 

 ter start with a few specimens and start right than to start with 

 more that you have to hoist into rank by years of breeding. 



