SHEEP-FARMING. 55 



for general purposes home-bred, i.e. acclimatised rams are 

 infinitely preferable to imported. For the high-caste 

 breeder it is another thing. It is his province to introduce 

 the best and highest blood, acclimatise it, and modify it 

 to suit general purposes. 



VI. 



Let it not be supposed that I am ignorant of the enter- 

 prise and great cost at which many gentlemen have, 

 during the last few years, endeavoured to work out im- 

 provement in their flocks with both the Negretti, and in 

 a few cases, the Eambouillet breeds. I could name a 

 score who have spared neither expense nor efforts within 

 their compass and knowledge ; yet, in nine cases out often, 

 failure and disappointment has been the result. One is 

 disgusted with Negretti, another with Eambouillet, and 

 each with apparent reason. But this is a fault which 

 does not depend on the breed, for both strains of blood, 

 within certain Umits, are capable of improving our stock 

 in one or other direction. The fault in both cases lies in 

 the management, and in many, if not in most instances, 

 in addition to erroneous management, the parties have 

 made their trials with inferior ' blood ' and small rams, 

 and have, moreover, used the half-bred rams of their own 

 breeding to put into their flocks. To succeed, the man- 

 agement must be a complete system. One point omitted 

 will mar half a dozen practised — will mar, in fact, the 

 whole. I have seen costly ' galpones,' — the most costly, — 

 but in no single one have I noticed a thermometer. I 

 liave experienced a sense of oppression on entering them, 

 and breathed an air redolent of accumulations of foulness, 

 owing to their insufficient ventilation ; and I have seen in 



