A BREED DEVELOPED BY THE EiNGLISll SMALL FARMER 



In America and other great sheep countries the favorite breeds have always been the fine 

 wool breeds, such as the Merino. These were bred primarily for wool, and mutton was a 

 side issue. They could be handled profitably only in large flocks on great tracks of cheap 

 land. Such range land is disappearing all over the world now, and the fine-wool sheep is 

 diminishing in numbers as a result. The future of sheep breeding in the United States 

 seems to lie in the dual purpose breeds, particularly the Down breeds evolved in England. 

 The Southdown, a 2-year-Qld ram of which is shown above, is one of the best of these. 

 Photograph from the tJ. S. Department of Agricultiu-e. (Fig. 2.) 



success will depend largely on the skill 

 of the farmer, and on starting with the 

 right kind of sheep. For this purpose, 

 the English Down breeds — Shropshire, 

 Hampshire, Southdown, Dorset and 

 Oxford — and the Tunis breed are desir- 

 able. Merinos, the finewool sheep of 

 the western plains, are less desirable for 

 this purpose; if kept, they should be 

 mated with a black-face ram. If he 

 understands what he is doino:, the farmer 



should make the meat pay the entire 

 expense of maintaining the sheep, leav- 

 ing the wool as clear profit.^ No other 

 animal, it is claimed, can be handled 

 with as little labor and expense, and as 

 large returns in proportion to the 

 investment . 



One of the incidental advantages 

 which may be of great value is the 

 destruction of weeds. In some of the 

 eastern States, a large part of the pasture 



- Lambs are now worth about $13 per hundredweight "on the hoof." Clipped wool brings 

 from 50 to 70 cents a pound, and an average sheep yields 8 pounds a year. The number of sheep 

 over one year old in the United States is about 35,000,000 and the annual slaughter about 

 13,000,000. 



389 



