6, 7 



necessary to its full development ; on the small one they are always 

 useful. In raising sheep of the Lincoln-merino cross the pasture 

 should he ample to fully develop the good points of the animal. 

 A lighter grassed country will suit the cross between the Shropshire 

 and Hampshire downs and merino, ;md a still lighter country can 

 be utilised for the Southdown-merino cross. 



An old objection to the down herds is that they do not yield 

 a good tleece of wool, but that objection does not hold good with 

 the Shropshire, which is as well covered as a merino ; the Hamp- 

 shire clown has a larger staple of wool than the merino, while the 

 fleece of the Southdown has been greatly improved during the 

 last decade. 



IN-BREEDING. 



The practice of in-breeding, or breeding from closely related 

 animals, is one that the tyro in sheep husbandry should never attempt. 

 It is invaluable in the hands of a master of the art of sheep 

 husbandry, to lix a type and give prepotency to a stud, but it must 

 be remembered that it confers equal prepotency to lix bad qualities 

 in a race. Where closely related animals have any weakness of 

 constitution, breeding from them renders the produce extremely 

 liable to contract the defects of the parents in an exaggerated degree. 



It is not wise to draw rams from an unbred Hock, unless the 

 sheep composing it are noted for strength of constitution. The 

 Murray merinos in South Australia have been in-bred for over half 

 a century, not a single infusion of outside blood having been intro- 

 duced in that time, and yet the sheep in that flock are of the most 

 robust constitution of any sheep in Australia. In that case, however, 

 the founder of the tlock, and his sons, who now own it, are among 

 the most skilful sheep breeders in Australia. 



LAMBING. 



THE TIME FOR LAMBING. With merinos it is the general 

 custom to lamb the ewes in autumn, when the rains have started 

 the young grass. The advantage of bringing into the shed at 

 shearing time line grown rive-months-old lambs has induced the 

 majority of Australian sheep farmers to advance the lambing time 

 to the earliest possible limit, and as the autumnal rains in these 

 colonies are extremely uncertain, it has often happened that the 

 lambing has commenced before there is a blade of green grass for 

 the ewes, and the result has often been disastrous. Over a very 

 large area of Australia the lambing for the last two years has been 

 a failure, mainly owing to this cause. If one could be sure of a 

 good rainfall towards the end of March, about the middle of May 

 would be a good time to lamb ; but our autumn rains are so often 

 late that it is by no means a safe plan to arrange for the ewes to 

 lamb in the warmer districts of Australia till June. In Queensland 

 spring lambing is a common practice, but in that colony most of the 



