626 Journal of Agriculture. |3 Oct. ,190^ 



he is the most valuable to a stud breeder, but if he be not a good thriver 

 then he is a curse to any man. Many of our foldy sheep look good 

 girthed, but you will often notice they are filled out with folds, and if 

 these were removed they would be very narrow, and here is where many 

 breeders have been trapped. These folds shomld be watched for as 

 standing outside the level from arm to sides. The plain-bodied class 

 of sheep, and it is difficult to draw the dividing line between folds and 

 plainness, is more easily managed, and needs a deal less attention. It 

 is the widest established class, and considering the number of owners, 

 large and small, engaged in sheep-breeding, it has perhaps the greater 

 number of fanciers. Some breeders of this class are turning out very 

 u.seful sheep, level made and profitable wool -cutters, just the class to be 

 of great benefit in crossing later on for export lamb trade, but still there 

 are used annually many thousands of rams and ewes of this class, light 

 and bony in the fore-quarter, wedge-shaped, and when inspected the first 

 impression is that they are light cutters, and that it is taking them all 

 their time to grow well what wool they have. 



From the better class of merinoes we get the greatest value in our cross- 

 breds ; level shoulders, good girths, and good fleeces can be bred as well 

 from descendants of the foldy studs as from the plain. Extremes 

 of either should be avoided. The few recognised breeders of foldy sheep 

 breed plain ones, and the breeders of smoridi-bodied sheep shovv us their 

 best with deep neck folds, and full, thighs, and by the time the flock 

 sheep from these studs and others influenced by this style of sheep, are 

 at prices within our reach, we find them very suitable for our purposes of 

 crossing. With the cull sheep from either type, whether foldy or plain, 

 we can expect verv little satisfaction ; they are, in the foldy type, wrinkly 

 and yellow fleececl, and worse still, bony and narrow ; whilst the culls of 

 the plain-bodied type are mostly wasty and thin woolled, bony and wedge- 

 shaped, although perhaps the better thrivers of the two. 



Merinoes to be of greater assistance toward export lamb, should be less 

 bony than we are accustomed to, and as full girthed as we can get them ; 

 in short, we w^ant them level shouldered, good thrivers, and fair wool- 

 cutters. 



T-INCOLNS. 



Although of the opposite grade of wool the Lincoln must be considered 

 our next greatest wool producer, and for crossing on the merino' for wool 

 and carcass purposes it must be given the choice of place. In good 

 country with heavy rainfall this sheep succeeds. The LincO'ln fleece lies 

 like thatch on a stack and with its natural grease keeps out heavy rain, 

 when with the shorter stapled and more upright woolled breeds it goes in. 

 We have considered merinoes from the view of shape and constitution, and 

 next to the merino the Lincoln, with many breeders, has also been neglected 

 in these respects. Some breeders when selecting their sheep for breeding 

 purposes pay most attention to wool i)oints, and covering of fleece, and do 

 not give the consideration to good girth and level shoulders that others do, 

 ■and so it is that with inferior Lincolns as with inferirir merinoes we find 

 this narrowness of girth and fore-quarter giving a bonv shouldered bad 

 doer, quite opposed to the first principles of correct freezing lambs ; and if 

 this class of Lincoln be mated with the same class of merino ewes, what 

 hope is there for good results ? The Lincoln as bred bv our best breeders 

 is undoubtedlv the best cross on merinoes for the better grazing areas 

 with fair rainfall, close to railways, where it is found desirable to combine 

 wool-growing with fattening. They are often spoken of as bad sheep as 



