ENGLISH LEICESTERS WERE USED TO SOME EXTENT 
A few of the Corriedale flocks were founded by crossing English Leicester rams on Merino ewes, 
but as the Leicester is one of the parents of the Lincoln breed, the results from this cross do 
not constitute a very different element, in the Corriedale, from the results of the more 
frequent Lincoln X Merino cross. 
The above photograph shows a champion English Lei- 
cester ewe at Christ Church, N. Z., 1914. As the type of this breed has not been materially 
changed in the last thirty years, this undoubtedly represents very closely the animals that 
were used in the establishment of the Corriedale breed. 
older breeds, though not free from such 
differences representing ideas of indi- 
vidual breeders, as occur in all breeds. 
Corriedales were first entered in the 
flock book of the New Zealand Sheep 
Breeders’ Association in 1911. That 
: year’s volume of the-flock book contains 
a brief history of seventeen Corriedale 
flocks including a total of 8671 ewes. 
Twelve of these make no mention of the 
use of any but Lincoln or Merino blood; 
five (containing 3400 ewes) show the use 
of English or Border Leicester rams at the 
outset with later partial use of rams from 
flocks bred from the Lincoln-Merino 
cross. It should be recalled that the 
English Leicester originally contributed 
largely in the formation of the Lincoln 
and Border Leicester breeds. 
The following summaries of the his- 
(Fig. 11.) 
tories of two flocks as printed in Vol. 7 
(1911) of the flock book typify the work 
of Corriedale breeders up to 1911: 
THE PROPERTY OF JAS. LITTLE 
Dalmeny Park, Woodgrove, North Canterbury. 
Mr. Little commenced experimenting with 
the view of producing inbred half-bred sheep 
when he was manager for the late Dr. Webster, 
proprietor of the Corriedale Estate, Otago. 
Romney Marsh and Merinos were first used; 
the result was entirely satisfactory, and would 
have been continued but for the decease of 
that gentleman and the sale of the property. 
On his taking up Allendale Estate, Waikari, 
Mr. Little continued to experiment. 
In 1879-80 he put 4,000 large-framed high- 
class Merino ewes to Lincoln rams, bred by 
Mr. Sutton and some of the late Dr. Webster’s 
strain. From 100 of the best ram lambs, 
the progeny of these ewes, a heavy cull was 
made, when twenty of the best were retained 
for service. These were mated with a pick of 
the half-bred ewes, the progeny of the Merino 
91 
