fore it is safer to reject all puny ewes. Culling is nearly always 

 performed while the sheep are in full fleece ; but the wool is not 

 everything, and to ensure a really good flock the sheep-farmer 

 would do well to go through his flock after shearing, when any 

 defects of form can be seen at a glance. In all breeds of sheep it 

 is well to breed for rounded ribs, good shoulders and quarters, and 

 a moderate length of leg. These points are of almost equal 

 importance with weight of fleece. 



CROSS BREEDING. 



In what has gone before, my remarks have been directed 

 towards the establishment and maintenance of a permanent flock, 

 and to do this it is necessary to keep only sheep of one breed. 

 Where cross breeding is kept up, the closest attention must be paid 

 to the breeding, as with a crossbred flock there is no such thing as 

 stability or uniformity. The type of the flock is always oscillating 

 towards the one breed or the other that are employed in the cross. 

 The skill of the breeder is shown in preventing either type from 

 becoming to > pronounced, indeed he must labour to ke p the sheep 

 about midway between the breeds employed. 



The crossbred sheep generally raised in Victoria are between 

 the Lincoln and the merino, and with such widely differing types 

 it may be readily imagined that such a thing as an intermediate 

 breed is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to establish. 



Crossbreds raised from these varieties, though they have no 

 type, are extremely profitable both for carcase and fleece. They 

 mature earlier than the merino, they give a much heavier carcase, 

 and their fleece is considerably heavier than that of the merino. 

 The wool is of a character that finds ready purchasers at prices 

 little, if anything, below those paid for merino wool. In choosing 

 Lincoln rams the great point is to get them well shaped, with good 

 brisket, and well sprung ribs. The fleece must be of long staple, 

 and with a heavy lock, not a thin pointed one. The wool should be 

 lustrous so that the crossbred may have bright attractive wool. All 

 Lincoln sheep should have the characteristic forelock of the breed. 



In raising sheep of the Lincoln-merino cross, rams of the 

 former breed are put to ewes of the latter breed. This is done 

 because merinoes are so much more numerous than Lincolns. 

 When the Lincoln rams are large headed a good many ewes are 

 lost at lambing time. To avoid these losses many sheepbreeders 

 use ewes for crossing that have bred several times, but experience 

 shows that there are fewer losses in the cross with young ewes 

 than with old ones. For a good many years the attention of the 

 breeders of Lincoln studs has been directed to reducing the size of 

 the head, and careful selection has effected a marked change in this 

 respect. The general run of the heads of Lincoln sheep is much 

 smaller than they were a score of years ago. 



