SHEEP. 299 



The choice of breed for crossing or grading depends mainly upon the object desired. If 

 fine-textured wool be the principal object, a Merino ram would be the breed recommended; 

 if the demand be the longer-stapled wool of the combing variety, it would be a Cots wold, 

 Leicester, or Lincoln, some of the Cotswold -Merino grades producing not only valuable wool 

 in large quantity, but also very choice mutton, in this manner selecting the breed that com 

 bines the greater number of qualities desired for the purpose in view. 



Mr. Joseph Harris, author of &quot;Harris on the Pig,&quot; thus gives an account of his 

 experience in crossing Merinos and Cotswolds: 



&quot; Starting with a flock of sixty common Michigan Merino ewes, and using a pure-bred 

 Mapleshade ram, I got seventy-three lambs from the sixty ewes, and raised seventy : two of 

 them. The ram lambs I sold to the butcher. The ewe lambs, at the proper age, were bred 

 to a pure Cotswold ram, and the ewe lambs from this second cross, at the proper age, were 

 bred to a pure Cotswold ram. The lambs so obtained have 87 per cent, of Cotswold blood. 

 The next, a fourth cross, of which I have only a few, contain 93 per cent, of Cotswold 

 blood. Four crosses is as far as I have gone, though I propose to continue this method of 

 breeding, using in all cases a pure-bred Cotswold ram. 



I am a breeder of pure Cotswolds, and am an enthusiastic advocate of them. But there 

 are many who think that like produces like, and they select accordingly. Said an 

 experienced fine- wool sheep breeder, a few days since, in looking over my flock: If I 

 wanted a ram, that is the one I would select, and he pointed out one of the Cotswold-Merinos. 

 I would rather have him than any two of your thoroughbreds. The fact that this splendid 

 grade ram was obtained by using a thoroughbred had no weight with him. I believe he is 

 wrong. I believe we should always use good thoroughbred sires. 



The first-cross sheep have fine, close fleeces, somewhat resembling Southdown, but finer. 

 The wool is in great demand. 



The second cross varies somewhat. Some of the lambs look exactly like pure-bred Cots- 

 wolds. All of them have wool long enough for combing, and all are remarkably vigorous, 

 handsome, well-formed, healthy sheep. I showed a second -cross yearling ewe at the fair this 

 year that was as pretty as a picture&quot; a strong, square, short-legged, full-bodied sheep, 

 with long wool, a beautiful head, and handsome foretop in fact, a model Cotswold in 

 everything but pedigree. I have another two-cross , ewe that I exhibited in 1877. She sheared 

 13 Ibs., and weighed, in breeding condition, at two years old, 237 Ibs. 



The three-cross lambs are, in everything but pedigree, Cotswolds. If I was going to 

 exhibit at a fair a pen of the three best lambs, or two-year-olds, without regard to the breed 

 or breeding, I should select from these grades two or three cross lambs or sheep. 



One word in regard to lambing. Many farmers seem to fear that if they put a large 

 Cotswold ram to a small Merino ewe there will be trouble at, lambing time. So far as my 

 experience goes, their fears are groundless. We have never had the slightest trouble. A 

 well-bred Cotswold has a small head, and it is the size of the head, and not the weight of the 

 lamb, that causes trouble in lambing. We frequently have had lambs from common Merino 

 ewes weighing 12 Ibs. at birth, and in some instances 14 Ibs. and this from ewes weighing 

 not over 80 Ibs. and yet we have never had any trouble in lambing. 



The real secret of success in raising Cotswold-Merino lambs is to feed the Merino ewes a 

 little better than common during the winter, and after lambing to feed them as well as you 

 know how. A small Merino ewe cannot produce a 14-lb. lamb and give it all the milk it 

 requires till it weighs 75 Ibs., unless she has something to eat.&quot; 



Mr, Killebrew, of Tennessee, says respecting grading a flock of common sheep: 



&quot; There are other considerations, important to the breeder just beginning to grade up his 

 flock, in addition to their mutton qualities, even if mutton is his principal object. He wants 

 long-lived and healthy ewes, and he wants them to yield him as much wool each year as 



