HIGH-CLASS SHEEP-BKEEDING. 85 



food ; and that I have urged the selection of rams pos- 

 sessing the quahties desirable to be transmitted. 



On the part of the young ewe, or ' borrega,' it is 

 equally important that she should have attained a certain 

 maturity, to enable her to bear, without injury, the great 

 vigour of the ram ; to nourish and develop the foetus 

 within her, and have a sufficiency of milk for her offspring 

 when lambed. Not only would the immature ewe be 

 unable to do justice to the begotten of a superior ram, 

 but her own incomplete form would be stopped in its 

 development, and she, and all her future offspring, would 

 be far inferior to what they otherwise would have been. 



In the ' Cabaiias ' of the highest perfection in fineness, 

 silkiness, and length of wool — a Prussian Silesian high- 

 class ' Cabana ' — the ewe is not allowed to take the ram 

 before she is two years and a-half old ; and the ram is 

 not permitted to the ewe until he is three years old. I 

 consider, however, that in this more genial climate, 

 maturity is attained at an earlier age by several months ; 

 for as in vegetation a genial climate and higher tempera- 

 ture hastens the growth of a plant and ripens it, so it is 

 also in animal life. 



The reason why the results I have indicated above 

 flow from too early connexion of the sexes, is, that in all 

 nature, a certain time — variable in each class, and under 

 different circumstances — is required for the development 

 of the frame. Development is a gradual process of 

 chemical combination and organic construction ; and 

 while these various changes and processes of building up 

 the structure are going on, all the materials are in a more 

 pliant form. Like the potter's clay, they are soft, impres- 

 sionable, and ductile ; and are all required to complete 

 the work and harden it off. If, before this ripening and 

 consolidation of the frame is complete, the powers of the ^ 



