398 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



jto get a wool that will be acceptable to the wool buyers, with a good mutton car- 

 'Ciss combined ; if we don't they will not give good returns. I thought the Shrop- 

 cbire was going to be that sheep, but from what you say, I am a little ofif. I am 

 afraid of the Merino, but think they will do in the range. Have you had Cots- 

 wold croased with the Southdown fleece? 



M-. Merritt. Such a cross would not be profitable as to manufactures. The 

 Southdown is a light sliearing sheep, but you would keep up the mutton qualities. 

 But do you think it impossible, by careful selection and crossing the Merino with 

 the Cotswold, to keep up the quality? 



Mr. Mitchell. You seem to run ashore; you don't know whether to go back to 

 the Cotswold or keep Merino. If we could stop it would do, but we have to keep 

 going on crossing. 



Mr. Merritt. There is a marked difierence between the Merino and Mexican- 

 cross sheep. We get those crosses from Kansas; often there is material in them 

 that is unfit for anything. 



Mr. Mitchell. Have you bandied those Hampshiredown fleeces? 



Mr. Merritt. I do not know them at all. 



Mr. Mitchell. I want to use the most profitable kind of sheep for wool and 

 mutton. The Shropshire don't seem to be the kind Mr. Merritt wants. 



Mr. Merritt. Last year I bought Shropshire wool and paid two cents less than 

 for Cotswold. I paid full price tlie year before, but lost money on it. 



Mr. Mitchell. I had 300 fleeces last year, sixty of which were crossed by Shrop- 

 shire buck and Cotswold ewes. I thought I would realize much from them, but 

 only got eighteen cents per pound. 



Mr. Merritt. What Ls your objection to following up crosses first on one side 

 and another, keeping your cross as near half blood as you can? 



Mr. Mitchell. When you do too much crossing you injure the animal. If you 

 commence one way, then another, you don't know whether you are going to get the 

 type of the animal or the liktnt ss of the progeny. I would rather get a good sheep 

 and breed right in that line. We must use pure sires. 



Mr. Men-itt. The only objection Ls not for breeding purposes. 



Mr. Mitchell. If we do not use a pure sire the lambs will not be like him, be- 

 cause it is a cross breed. No, .'^ir, we want a full-blood buck, that he may transmit 

 his qualities to the lamb. 



Mr. Howland. I hold that the Shropshire is the best general purpose sheep I 

 ever came across. It may turn out that I may have to take two cents a pound less 

 for wool. That is a secondary object; the mutton is the thing I raise sheep for. 

 Living close to the city, as I do, I sell my lambs. Two or three years ago medium 

 wool was most desirable for the manufacturers here. They never objected on ac- 

 count of being Shropshire, and I generally got the best prices for wool. I got 22 

 cents last year, and it was mixed up with the Shropshire breed. I think I got 25 

 <jents a pound the year before. The fashion changes, and we have got to consider 

 whether certain breeds of sheep, though a little out of fashion, sometimes would 

 not be best to raise. To the man who raises fifty sheep it is a small matter whether 

 the tarifi" is on or ofi". I have looked at this thing very carefully. The tarifi" is 

 .for the benefit of the large sheep raisers. Wheth- r it would benefit the people or 



