CHAPTER III. 

 CROSS-BREEDING. 



Notwithstanding the great excellence of many of 

 the pure breeds of sheep it will be a long time before 

 we will be free from the practice of cross-breeding. 

 There is a necessity for this in sheep breeding much 

 more urgent than in cattle breeding, or, in fact, with 

 any other farm animals. Very few pure-bred sheep 

 reach our markets. Nor will they come in large 

 numbers for many years. The reason for this is to 

 be found in the fact that so large a per cent of our 

 sheep are grown upon the western ranges. There 

 ewe flocks seem most profitable when they have a 

 Merino foundation. Merinos from time immemorial 

 have been range sheep, the only break in their habit 

 being the few decades that they were kept upon east- 

 ern farms. Merinos are hardy, are used to drouths 

 and short feed, have the instinct of herding, are 

 easily managed. Moreover they retain their wool 

 well up to considerable age. Wool is a far greater 

 factor in western sheep husbandry than it is in the 

 country to the east. Flocks must be good shearers, 

 must be hardy, must herd well. 



But the Merino when kept pure is an inferior 

 mutton sheep. Moreover it is an inferior breeding 

 sheep. An infusion of mutton blood makes the ewe 



(76) 



