74 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA 



easily fattened. Of a herd of half-blood Persian- 

 Merino ewes a California owner says: "They are 

 omnivorous feeders and great rustlers for food. If 

 there is anything between heaven and earth to eat 

 they will get it." The writer has observed a tend- 

 ency among some Persians to foot disease when kept 

 on wet soils. They are true sheep of the desert, 

 and there they would seem to have a useful place. 



Among the breeds described the would-be sheep 

 owner can choose one and he should stick to that 

 one. Cross-breeding is permissible for the market, 

 but let no one undertake at this day to create a new 

 breed of sheep by mingling the bloods of breeds 

 already having received the care and thought of gen- 

 erations of skillful breeders. One man's lifetime is 

 too short to establish a breed, and there seems small 

 need of another. 



It may be well again to remind readers who may 

 happen to be living in the cornbelt or south of it, 

 that the easiest and surest success in breeding and 

 maintaining a mutton flock is to select ewes of the 

 most "muttony" of the Merinos (Delaines, Black- 

 tops or Eambouillets), choosing rams of whatever 

 breed of English sheep best suits his purpose and 

 situation, and cross-breeding and selling the lambs. 

 It is unfortunate that we have too long neglected 

 what may rightly be termed American breeds the 

 Blacktops, Delaines and in a slighter sense the Ram- 

 bouillets, for in ewes of such type is our best chance 

 for quite easy success in sheep breeding. Naturally 

 there must be breeders of all of the breeds described, 



