CROSS-BREEDING 79 



Cotswold blood does well ; a flock having one-quarter 

 or even one-eighth of Cotswold blood is increased in 

 size and stamina remarkably. To get a flock of one- 

 quarter Cotswold blood one must first get one-half 

 blood Cotswold-Merino rams to use on his pure-bred 

 Merinos. For some exceedingly rich ranges the one- 

 half blood Cotswold-Merino ewes are used and with 

 good success. These ewes are exceedingly good for- 

 agers and raise hardy fast-growing lambs. 



DISHLEY MERINOS. 



On page 219 is shown a flock of newly-shorn 

 Dishley Merinos, the breeding of E. Delacour of 

 Gouzangrez, France. I mention this breed not be- 

 cause it is now found in the United States but be- 

 cause it has played some part in the history of 

 sheep breeding, and because assuredly I have never 

 seen a finer flock of sheep than M. Delacour 's. 

 There are some 2,000 of them together, white, clean 

 and plump, their skins pink and eyes bright, with 

 never a trace of stomach worms about them. Dish- 

 ley Merinos are a hybrid sheep, product of mingling 

 the blood of the Merino and the Leicester. The very 

 difficult thing of getting a fusion of these very 

 diverse bloods has been accomplished, although one 

 might well ask, as he studies M. Delacour 's sheep, 

 whether the influence of the Merino ancestry had not 

 been pretty well lost, the present form of the sheep 

 being much that of the Leicester, with, however, a 

 finer, softer and better wool and a smaller body than 

 the pure-bred Leicester. Once this breed had con- 



