34 



SIIEEP-BREEDINQ. 



By S. Smith Travees. 

 Eead lltli July, 1871. 



In the remarks on sheep-breeding which I am about to sub- 

 mit to you, I must beg you to understand that I do not 

 profess to be able to offer you the results of any experiments 

 of my own, nor aiiy theory founded on the experiments of 

 others. 



I cannot find, indeed, that any experiments have ever been 

 made upon any scientific principle, and upon such a scale as 

 to arrive at any defined and certain laws, such as must underlie 

 and govern the science of artificial selection, whilst on refer- 

 ence to those authorities who have written on the subject, I 

 find discordancies of opinion, coupled with vagueness of 

 technical phraseology, that must leave every one in doubt as 

 to whether indeed we do know scientijically more of breeding 

 now than we did one hundred years ago. 



And if what we do know be not scientifically known, and 

 proved and arranged, I must contend that it is not really 

 known, and does not really belong to us. It is true that 

 owing to the attention of a very great number of highly edu- 

 cated men to the subject, the most extraordinary improve- 

 ments in our various breeds of sheep and cattle have been 

 effected. But if these distinguished breeders were to be taken 

 away, where shouM we find, or be able to lay down any of the 

 principles on which they have proceeded? It is very well to 

 point to Mr. Bakewell, who in the middle of last century 

 originated the Dishley Leicesters, and to the MacArthurs, 

 Learmonths, Coxes, Mr. Bailey, and others ' to whom we 

 owe our Australian breeds ; but the question is what are the 

 principles of selection on which they have proceeded ? Had 

 they any ? 



The reply, I suspect, would be that the principle, the only 

 principle governing their selection, was to choose the finest 

 ram, and put it to the finest ewe or ewes, according to the 

 individual judgment. If we could ascertain the truth, we 

 should find that these celebrated breeders depended entirely 

 on their natural gifts of hand and eye, and upon some intuitive 

 sense of harmony, symmetry, and perfection which hag 

 enabled them to choose and artificially select, till in a certain 

 number of years, the same eye and hand and intelligence 

 always presiding at the drafting yard, they have culminated 

 in certain flocks of surpassing excellence. The question there- 

 fore remains — have these breeders, either in England or Aus- 

 tralia, anything in common in their plan of action ? Can we 



