[249] 



the blue-grass region, equal to Kentucky, furnishing good grazing almost 

 the year round. The breed of sheep that would be suited to one locality 

 might not be suited to another. In selecting a breed for any locality we 

 should take into consideration feed, climate and surrounding circum- 

 stances, with market facilities and demand for the mutton or wool, or 

 both. We should then use that breed which will give the greatest net 

 value of marketable products. 



In Middle Tennessee, especially the blue-grass region, the large im- 

 ported English breeds, giving heavy carcass and great yield of wool, can 

 be more successfully and profitably bred and reared than in any other 

 portion of the State, unless in special localities where they can be given 

 rich pasturage similar to that furnished by the blue-grass of Middle Ten- 

 nessee. 



No one breed of sheep combines all the good qualities, hence the many 

 crosses that have been made, not only with all the imported English 

 breeds, but also at home with our own natives. I believe it is a matter 

 of experience with sheep breeders that the most profitable sheep are those 

 of cross-breed races. 



By the breeder breeding for a specific purpose, as Bakewell, of the 

 Dishly farm, did in producing the improved Leicester; as Eobt. W. Scott, 

 of Frankfort, Ky., did in producing the improved Kentucky; as has been 

 done in breeding to produce the Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Shropshire 

 Downs all, even the Cotswolds, have been refined by the mixtures of 

 other blood. Originally they were bred only on the headwaters of the 

 rivers Severn and Thames, and were a very large, coarse sheep They 

 have boen extensively crossed with the Leicester or Bakewell, diminishing 

 their size and fleece, but improving their carcass and rendering it earlier 

 of maturity, giving to their fleece the lustre that it did not originally pos- 

 sess, and at the same time detracting from its density. 



The improved breeds from the States are being shipped to Colorado,. 

 California, New Mexico, etc., to cross upon the natives there. So we of 

 Tennessee, with our great diversity of soil, climate, etc., by judicious 

 crosses upon our natives, can furnish a counterpart, at little cost, for every 

 race of sheep valuable for its fleece or mutton, if we give our time and at- 

 tention to such as may be suited to each locality. 



Probably nine-tenths of the sheep of Tennessee are natives scrubs 

 yielding about two pounds of wool, and of mutton, gross, about sixty 

 pounds. These, of themselves, are of but very little benefit to the ywner 

 or to the revenue of the State; but as a basis upon which to build, by 

 using improved males, they can be made, with very little cost, a great 

 source of revenue to the owner and to the State. 



In my judgment, by using the native ewes of fair size, good shape and 

 robust constitution as a base, and crossing upon them the Spanish Merino 

 buck, saving the ewe lambs of such cross and breeding them to the Cots- 

 wold buck, we can produce a breed of sheep healthier and better suited 



