GENERAL. 27 



fancy of the buyers. I do not hesitate to pronounce 

 this intermixture of breeds as very bad practice, tending 

 to obliterate anything like a definite type. The sheep- 

 farmers are inconstant ; one year they will put into their 

 flocks rams of Eambouillet cross, another year they will 

 supplement these with Negretti, and another Merinos, 

 in the same flock. 



It is true that, with the rapid extension of sheep-farm- 

 ing, and the comparatively small proportion of high cast 

 rams at present bred, and, moreover, the comparatively 

 recent introduction of the Negretti and Eambouillet 

 breeds, something of this was inevitable. The rams and 

 ewes imported from Germany and France possess various 

 degrees of merit, and, sold by auction, fetch prices 

 accordingly. Sums equivalent to from 15/. to 150/., even 

 200/., have been paid for rams. 



Some few of the British breeds have been likewise 

 introduced, Leicester, Southdown, and Shropshire, and 

 there are cross-bred flocks from these. 



VI. 



CATTLE. 



The great cattle establishments, 'estancias,' as before 

 said, occupy lands for the most part farther distant than 

 those devoted to sheep-farming in the province of Buenos 

 Ayres ; but there are many estancias within the sheep- 

 farming districts still occupied by cattle, or on which both 

 sheep and cattle are bred. 



There are many tracts of land on a large estancia, say of 

 ten to twenty-five square leagues, as well as certain dis- 

 tricts or lines of country, which are unsuitable for sheep : 



