APPARENT DIFFERENCES IN BREEDS. 103 



CHAPTER XI. 



APPARENT DIFFERENCES IN BREEDS. 



THE minute differences between breeds of sheep receive 

 but little attention. If we glance over a description of a 

 race given by a breeder, we usually find an account which 

 might do equally well for almost any other kind of sheep. 

 We are probably told that the breed is remarkable for pro- 

 ducing high-class wool and mutton, that it is singularly well 

 covered on the back, well developed in the leg and shoulder, 

 up-standing, hardy, and rent-paying. We may wonder why 

 these points should be particularly mentioned, since they 

 are not peculiar to any one breed, but are claimed for all. 

 And yet the answer to this objection would doubtless be 

 that they are the most important points, and that, if not 

 present, the sheep would scarcely deserve a detailed notice. 

 So recently as at the Plymouth meeting of the Royal in 

 1890, I asked one of the best judges and breeders of a well- 

 known breed of sheep to tell me what were the actual points 

 of difference between his breed and another which bore a 

 striking outward resemblance to it. His reply was very 

 characteristic. He said, " Nothing is easier the difference 

 is this. These sheep [his] possess all the excellences of the 

 other breed, and a good many more besides." This is all the 

 information I could get, but it is evident that if a promoter 

 of the other breed had been asked the same question he 

 might reasonably enough have given a similar answer. 





