LIVE STOCK 



Sheep 



THE GOATS AND SHEEP 



Chief 

 Breeds. 



Rajpntana. 

 Tuttyghar. 



Patna. 

 Madras. 



Nellore. 

 Coimbatore. 



Mysore. 



Bombay. 



Breeding 

 Experiments. 



Light Rainfall 

 and Light Soils 

 Essential. 



NepaL 



Kashmir. 



Himalayan and 

 Tibetan. 



Bin*. 



plains. [Cf. Orrah, Wool of Ealuch. and the Introd. of Merino Sheep and 

 Angora Goats, March 1890.] 



The following may be mentioned as the better known breeds of sheep in 

 India : 



1. Rajputana (Meywar) Sheep. These aye the finest and largest sheep in 

 India. They are sometimes called Delhi-Hansi or Tuttyghar sheep. They have 

 poor wool, but the mutton is large though somewhat coarse. [Cf. Ann. Kept. 

 Civil Vet. Dept., 1893-4, 14-6.] 



2. Bengal and Patna Sheep. The former is very inferior but the latter one of 

 the best breeds in India. They yield good wool and fatten readily. In 1836 

 an effort was made to improve the Patna sheep by crossing them with Southdown 

 rams. So also a similar effort was made with Bhagalpur sheep. 



3. Madras Sheep. The best are those of Chingleput, Kistna, Godavari, 

 Ganjam, Arcot, Salem, Trichinopoly, Tanjore, Madura and Tinnevelly. They 

 are coated with a coarse brown wool or hair of little value. An experiment was 

 for some years prosecuted at Heraganhalli to improve these sheep by crossing 

 them with Merino rams imported from Australia. This was abandoned in 1863. 



4. Nellore Sheep. A large breed, examples of which have been known to 

 scale 80 to 100 Ib. They are tall, leggy, and white or light brown in colour. 



5. Coimbatore Sheep. This is known as the kurumba breed. It is a wool-pro- 

 ducing animal, small in size, the prevailing colours being black with white heads. 

 They fatten well, and the mutton of gram-fed animals is rich and well-tasted. 



6. Mysore. This is a woolly breed. The prevailing colour is light to a 

 very dark grey or black. It furnishes the best fighting rams of the plains. 

 [Cf. Buchanan-Hamilton, Journ. Mysore, etc., 1807, i., 119-21 ; ii., 276-8 ; iii., 

 354-5.] 



7. Bombay Sheep. Dr. Hove, in 1787, speaks of the sheep in the Deccan as 

 being the finest he had seen in India and as having superior wool. So long ago as 

 1835 Col. Jervis conducted extensive experiments with a view to improving the 

 Bombay sheep. Subsequently Col. Pottinger, Sir A. Burnes and others brought 

 sheep from Kabul, the districts of the Upper Indus, Persia, the Cape of Good 

 Hope and England. A farm was established at Ahmednagar, and for some years 

 vigorous experiments at stock improvement were prosecuted. This was reported 

 on by Sir George Arthur in 1843, who recommended that fresh Merino rams 

 should be continuously imported for some years to come. The subject seems, 

 however, to have been suddenly forgotten and the farm abandoned, for nothing 

 of any importance was subsequently published regarding it. Mollison (Textbook 

 Ind. Agri., ii., 59) says nothing of these experiments nor of the fate of the farm. 

 He offers, however, many useful and practical suggestions based chiefly on 

 experience gained in Bombay. Sheep and goats, he says, are most successfully 

 bred in districts with moderate or light rainfall and light, naturally well-drained 

 soils. Neither sheep nor goats thrive during the monsoon in heavy-soil districts. 

 In the breeding districts large flocks do not thrive unless they are continuously 

 grazed on clean ground. Large flocks of sheep and goats are brought in the fair 

 season by professional shepherds from Kathiawar into the plains of Northern 

 Gujarat, and also from the upland comparatively dry waste grazing lands east and 

 north of Khandesh, to the black-soil tracts and arable plains of the Deccan. A 

 few goats among the sheep are decidedly advantageous. They lead the flock and 

 keep the sheep moving and thus grazing. [Cf. Morgan, Sheep-Breeding in the 

 Deccan, in Agri. Ledg., 1895, No. 18.] 



8. Nepal Sheep. Of these there are two kinds the village ghorpalla and the 

 forest ran baria. The last is a small and almost semi-wild animal that lives in 

 large flocks on the wooded hill slopes. 



9. Kashmir Sheep. Lawrence (Valley of Kashmir, 360-4) gives many in- 

 teresting particulars regarding the sheep and wool of Kashmir, but says nothing 

 of the breeds met with except that some are as good as the SouthdoVns. Mr. 

 Drummond informs me that in Kashmir it is the custom to wash the sheep in 

 the river before being shorn, a circumstance that would point to the wool being 

 valued more highly than is commonly believed. Baldrey (Agri. Journ. 2nd., 

 1906, i., pt. iii., 201-4) urges the " Benefits of Sheep-dipping " in India. 



10. Himalayan and Tibetan Sheep. Hodgson mentions some five breeds with,- 

 under some of these, several sub-breeds. Space cannot be afforded to do much 

 more than enumerate the principal examples of these by name : 



(a) Hunid of Western and Hdluk of Eastern Tibet. A tall, graceful animal, 



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