of the Vienna Exhibition, 1873. 55 



pletely white sheep of the same type. Some Zackel rams had 

 long horns, while others from Galicia were hornless.'' We 

 have already noticed the good qualities possessed by Baron 

 Romaszkan's Zackel sheep. 



Mr. Paget describes the Transylvanian type as long-woolled, 

 black or white, and horned. The sources of profit are wool, 

 milk, and lambs, and it is reckoned that each season the lamb 

 brings 4.s\, the wool 4*\, and about 15 lbs. of cheese gives 4^. 

 more, in all 125. 



The sheep bear the Avinter* without shelter, and each sheep 

 consumes 240 lbs. of hay and nothing else during the winter. 

 The lamlis are separated from the dams at six or seven weeks old, 

 on St. George's Day, April 25th. The ewes are milked till 

 September 25th, and put to the ram at the end of October. 

 Each flock consists of about half and half, black and Avhite. 

 When black tups are paired with white ewes the produce is 

 nearly always black. The lambs' skins show a pretty, fine, 

 curling lock, which causes them to be in great request. The 

 following is the substance of a letter received from Mr. Paget, 

 describing the Transylvanian Zackel sheep, and the results of 

 his experiments in producing a crossed race with English 

 Lincolns : — " It is about ten years since twelve of the principal 

 landed proprietors of Transylvania met together at my invita- 

 tion to consider the best ineasures for the improvement of our 

 indigenous long-woolled sheep. 



"• In consequence of the competition of Australian short wools, 

 our Alerino and cross-bred Alerino wools would soon have been 

 beaten out of the market. The price of this commodity was 

 falling day by day, while coarse long wool was improving in 

 price. There had also been inquiries made bv French specu- 

 lators about the price of our sheep when fat, so that for the first 

 time there seemed to be a chance of exporting mutton. This 

 double stimulus turned attention to the native sheep, which is 

 not a bad animal when compared with the unimproved races of 

 other countries. The leg is short, the bone not too heavy, head 

 fine, and wool long, although very coarse. What is called a good 

 flock here is composed of about 300 ewes, half of which are 

 black, and half white. To these, generally, but not universallv, 

 black rams are put, the object being to get as manv black lambs 

 as possible, black skins being of twice the value of white ones. 

 On the other hand the white ewe gives more wool, which fetches 



* The temperature of the moimfainous district of Ti-ansylvania varies from 

 + 9:0 ' Fahr. in the height of ' summer, to — 29" Fahr. in the depth of winter ; but 

 in the rest of tlie northern highlands the minimum temperature is — .5° Fahr. 

 (' Skizze dor Landeskunde Ungarns," edited by Karl Keleti, Chef des Kon. Ung. 

 Statistischen Bureaus.) 



