No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 783 



Who ever saw the third crop of lambs from same sire and dams that 

 were equal to the first aud second crops? If the nick is great use 

 a good son and then go back to the old ram. Who ever saw a really 

 great ram that had a full brother a year younger that was his equal? 

 I never did. I killed a brother to Don Dudley for mutton (and it 

 was as good a fate as he deserved), and sold a full brother to Kaiser 

 for |2.5U to be slaughtered. Great are the mysteries of the breed- 

 ing problem! 



We have taken the American Merino as a special subject for dis- 

 cussion because he represents one of the highest achievements of 

 the breeder's art, and because the family should be preserved as the 

 fountain-head to be drawn from for fleece improvement, and be- 

 cause the principles involved in his successful breeding apply to all 

 breeds and kinds of domestic animals. Many long centuries have 

 intervened since the Good Shepherd said, "How much better is a man 

 than a sheep?" Then put the man behind the sheep and be true to 

 your own manhood and to your brother man. Let your name stand 

 for all that is moral, honest and upright, and let your methods and 

 practices be an open book, read and know of all men. If he who 

 makes two blades of grass to grow where one grew before is a public 

 benefactor, how much more is he a benefactor who enhances the 

 meat or wool-producing capacity of a breed. Verily he should rank 

 among princes and not among mean men. "But," says one "are all 

 these rules to be observed in successful sheep breeding, and are the 

 principles laid down inviolable?" We answer yes, and more too. 

 In these strenuous days of heroic endeavor, when success is measured 

 by marvelous achievement, every detail that contributes to the end 

 becomes an essential. I pity the man who has no ambition to stamp 

 his name and impress upon something that will benefit his fellows. 

 Such a one is a weakling and unworthy of true manhood and his 

 generation. 



One word more and I am done. I believe as surely as the sun 

 rises and sets in his course that the Merino is to come back and claim 

 his own. For more than three-fourths of a century he was our 

 national sheep. The forces that drove him from his birthright, free 

 trade and shoddy, were unnatural, abhorrent and forbidding. For 

 fleece production he stands out separate and alone. In hardiness 

 he has no rival. As economical mothers of mutton lambs when 

 mated with that object in view they challenge any and all breeds. 

 I believe that a careful survey of world-wide conditions warrants 

 the belief that a long period of prosperity lies before the American 

 sheep farmers. So care for the sheep and kill the dog. 



GOV. HOARD: You are proceeding on the line that the type you 

 are after is on the male side? 



MR. RAY: Always, it cannot be otherwise. 



GOV. HOARD: I wanted to know why you don't use the sire on 

 the same female more than two seasons. That question of nicking 

 is something clear back. I have got a Guernsey bull that nicks mpst 

 splendidly with the majority of my herd, but I have six females that 

 he don't nick with at all, and he didn't get me but one calf from 

 those six cows, and that bull couldn't do his work with those cows 

 right. I keep another bull, and I am trying to see whether they 



