Bell: The Multi-Nippled Breed 



111 



to introduce the improved fleece into 

 Mrs. Bell's Twin-bearing flock. 



The principles of selection adopted 

 in ]\Irs. Bell's Twin-bearing flock were 

 as follows : 



1. The nipples of the lambs were examined. 

 The lambs having four or more well- 

 developed, well-separated nipples of 

 about equal size were retained in the 

 flock and those that did not come up to 

 this requirement were transferred to the 

 farmer's flock. 



2. In the autumn the lambs remaining in 

 Mrs. Bell's flock were weighed, and the 

 average weight ascertained. The lambs 

 weighing more than the average were 

 retained and the others transferred to 

 the farmer's flock. 



3. Innumerable experiments in the past 

 having demonstrated that when mating 

 was accomplished in October the propor- 

 tion of twin lambs was very much 

 greater than when mating occurred in 

 November, and that very few twins re- 

 sulted from December mating, the Octo- 

 ber mating season was retained. 



4. When the lambs became two years old 

 some of them were found to have twins 

 of their own, while others had only 

 single lambs. The ewes that had twins 

 when two years old were retained in 

 Mrs. Bell's flock and the others trans- 

 ferred to the farmer's flock. 



As a result of these processes of 

 selection the adult ewes of Mrs. Bell's 

 flock consist of : 



1. Sheep having four or more well-devel- 

 oped, well-separated nipples yielding milk. 



2. Ewes weighing more than the average 

 weight of ewes of their age. 



3. They were all of them ewes that had 

 had twins when two years of age. 



4. They were all mated in October and had 

 their lambs in March. 



It was found that with very few 

 exceptions these ewes continued to bear 

 twins or triplets every year with hardly 

 any single lambs. The few failures 

 were transferred to the farmer's flock, 

 and we now find that the adult ewes 

 of Mrs. Bell's flock constitute a true 



twin-bearing stock. They always give 

 us twins or triplets with hardly a sin- 

 gle lamb, and the twins and triplets 

 born are found to be in the autumn 

 fully the equals in weight of single 

 lambs, showing that the mother yielded 

 milk enough for the support of more 

 than one lamb. 



We are uncertain as yet whether the 

 twin-bearing tendency is a hereditary 

 characteristic, for the ewes transferred 

 to the farmer's flock were mated in 

 December and very few of them have 

 twins born in May. The flock, how- 

 ever, has been too small to enable us to 

 carry out experiments to determine this 

 point with certainty. All that we can 

 say is that Mrs. Bell's flock can be 

 relied upon to give us twins and triplets 

 every year with only an occasional 

 reversion to single lambs. 



For example, thirty-one Iambs were 

 born this year : of these only one was 

 a single lamb ; twenty-four were twins 

 (twelve pairs) ; six were triplets (two 

 sets). 



Special Notice 



Since the death of Mrs. Bell. Jan. 

 3, 1923, her daughters have felt 'the 

 desirability of placing the multi-nip- 

 pled breed of sheep in the hands of 

 breeders who would be interested in 

 continuing Mrs. Bell's experiments or 

 in preserving the two hereditary char- 

 acters of multi-nipples and twin-bear- 

 ing for future use in the improvement 

 of established breeds, to which these 

 characters could be be added to ad- 

 vantage. 



I shall be glad to get into commu- 

 nication with institutions or with 

 breeders of established reputation who 

 are in a position to utilize in a 

 thoroughly scientific way Mr. Bell's 

 multi-nippled breed of sheep. 



— [Editor.] 



