340 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



troughs. The com or oil cake is given in small quantities at 

 first, and increased until each receives one pint per day, which 

 is sufficient to fatten them hy the time before specified. 



&quot; The ewes are often kept until they are nine or ten years 

 old, but not in the regular flock, as they are mostly broken- 

 mouthed and require nursing, especially where they have been 

 kept much upon turnips. The usual time of keeping them, if in 

 a flock, is until they are six or seven years of age. 



&quot;I think the first cross with a South Down and a Leicester 

 one of the best I have ever seen, both for mutton and wool, and 

 general usefulness ; and as a breeder of South Downs, I recom 

 mend to use the South Down ram to the white-faced ewe. as the 

 produce, when fat, is worth more per pound than a cross made 

 the other way, viz., with the white-faced ram and the South 

 Down ewe ; but possibly a breeder of Leicester rams would say 

 differently. I believe my assertion will be borne out, that eight 

 lambs out of ten will take most after the male, if a South Down, 

 in color, and a greater number than after the Leicester ram ; and 

 the price in Smithfield will determine which description is worth 

 the most per pound, a white or brown-faced sheep. I have 

 stated that the produce, when fat, are worth more per pound, as I 

 consider that all sheep so bred, viz., as crosses, are worth more to 

 fat than for any other purpose, and are certainly excellent, sheep. 

 Some crosses have been carried farther to great advantage, with 

 out doubt, but it is the exception not the rule. Little doubt 

 exists in my mind, that the breeders of Leicester and other 

 white-faced sheep can and do use a South Down for one cross 

 only, and then breed on from that cross, not by putting the 

 crosses together, but by putting a white-faced ram to the half- 

 bred ewe, and so keep on, from her produce, with the Leicester 

 or white-faced sheep for several generations, by which means 

 they obtain more muscle, more constitution, quite as much or 

 more wool, (if the selection is properly made in choosing the 

 South Down ram.) and I believe the brown color of the male 

 would be quite subdued by the second cross, or the third at 

 most ; on the other hand, I believe it has been proved that the 

 stain of the white-faced sheep in a South Down flock, where the 

 experiment has been tried, has never been extinguished. Some 

 will come a little different from others in the same lot. Perhaps 

 some individuals may differ from me in opinion. You asked 

 for mine. 



