802 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



status, when they are neglected or abused, is no proper discouragement to this course of 

 improvement; for such a policy would condemn the adoption of all our best breeds of horses, 

 cattle, sheep, and hogs; for all have been produced by careful and judicious crossing and 

 selection, and all improvements in stock can be fully maintained only by a reasonable share 

 of the same care and judgment by which the improvement was originally effected.&quot; 



By studying the characteristics of the different popular breeds, and their adaptation to 

 his own particular locality, and other requirements, such as the soil, quality of pasturage, 

 climate, etc., whether wool or mutton, or both combined, be desired, the farmer can readily 

 decide which are best adapted to his own use, either for grading the common native flocks, 

 or for maintaining the more valuable thoroughbred standard. 



Which Breeds are Best ? As to which breed among the many valuable ones is 

 best in an abstract point of view, and can be unerringly recommended for all parts of our 

 country for all general requirements, we are of the opinion that there is really no best breed. 

 Some are best for certain localities and purposes, and some for others; each of the choice 

 breeds is best in a general and special sense, in its appropriate locality and under appropriate 

 management. 



The more hardy and vigorous breeds are best adapted to extremes of climatic influences 

 and the more scanty pasturage, while those more delicately constituted will thrive best and 

 be found most profitable, in temperatures suited to their capacities; the mutton and wool 

 qualities of the different breeds vary accordingly. 



Each breeder will have his favorite among the different varieties, and will contend that 

 his own is the one to be preferred above all others. In making a choice among the 

 standard breeds, the farmer will be required to study the characteristics of each, taking into 

 consideration the conditions and circumstances governing his own locality, his object in the 

 enterprise, and be governed accordingly. The furnishing of early lambs for market purposes 

 will be found an important item in profitable sheep-husbandry to those farmers who are so 

 located as to have a ready and easy access to a city market. 



Breeding Sheep. &quot;With sheep, as with all other animals, the general principle of the 

 prepotency of the thoroughbred male, and the uncertain and generally unprofitable results of 

 the use of grades, is an important truism; therefore, in all efforts towards the improvement of 

 a flock in breeding, the sire should be a thoroughbred animal. A thoroughbred male will 

 be sure to impress his own valuable qualities upon his progeny; any slight deviation from this 

 being the rare exception, rather than the rule, while a grade male will not do this with any 

 certainty. 



The important truths relative to the force of heredity, which every breeder of domestic 

 animals cannot fail to have noticed in his experience, should impress the farmer and stock 

 breeder with the importance of selecting the very best specimens of the kind from his flocks 

 for their perpetuation ; and not only this, but a pure-bred ram should always be used ; those 

 who, with a view to economy, sire their flocks with inferior animals, will be disappointed in 

 the result; the best will prove the most profitable in the end, in not only supplying better 

 mutton and wool, which will command the highest prices, but in bringing up the standard of 

 the flock and supplying the farm with well-formed and more valuable animals, which will 

 in ftieir turn be better capacitated to perpetuate a superior type of their kind, with the 

 consequent profits to the breeder. Improvement should be the aim with every breeder^ and 

 this cannot be effectually accomplished without the proper material to work upon. (SEE 

 BREEDS AND PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING.) 



Choice of Buck, etc. As we have previously stated, grades for sires will prove 

 most unsatisfactory, and as the expense of a pure-bred ram is now so low as to come within 

 the means of almost any farmer, there can really be no reasonable excuse for using grades, 



