HIGH-CLASS SHEEP-BREEDIXG. 77 



the like, make excellent food for sheep or other animals, 

 provided they be ' got ' with the sap in them. Good, 

 elastic, sound-stapled wool is not compatible with ill-kept 

 sheep ; for the part of the wool that is grown during the 

 period of low condition is ' false ' or unsound, and it will 

 inevitably break at that point in the working, thus 

 rendering the short shorter. This is one of the causes 

 contributing, in a very marked degree, to the discredit of 

 Buenos Ayrean wools, lowering their value by a very large 

 percentage. The sheep-farmer, too, should not fail to 

 grow a moderate quantity of maize, for it is essential that 

 having invested in good, large, vigorous rams, they should 

 be corn-fed, and have the protection of a ' galpon,' or 

 shed. No matter what breed of rams he may purchase, 

 he will surely be disappointed in their progeny if the 

 treatment of the sires is not generous and well-regulated. 

 The tendency to degenerate of this or that breed is de- 

 claimed against by hundreds ; and this tendency is an 

 undoubted fact, when man or animal rarely, or only by 

 fits and starts, gets enough to eat. Believe it, my friend, 

 you would not long be the happy possessor of those 

 brawny arms, bright eyes, and that portly appearance, 

 did you get all ' farina ' and no ' asado,' and those half- 

 dozen magnificent 151b. fleece rams, that you have paid 

 5000$ or 6000$ apiece for, will not long look as they 

 now look, and their next fleece will fall very far short of 

 the 151bs., if you stop their corn, hay, and cut grass, and 

 turn them out on cold wintry nights. 



The rearing of ' high-caste breeding stock ' is, un- 

 doubtedly, the ' life-spring ' of successful sheep-farming 

 in all countries, and from this department of the business 

 must flow all that is good, and all that is to determine the 

 value of the products (and their standing in the eyes of 

 the great consumers) of a wool-growing country. No 



