16 BRITISH SHEEP AND SHEPHERDING. 



taken now which would be far more serious when the world's 

 stock gets in excess of the demand. 



The suggestion that changes in the distribution of sheep and 

 the making or remodelling of breeds is not prophetic, as it is actually 

 in progress. 



The leading supporters of some of the most renowned breeds admit 

 that they have been brought to a standstill, and can see no prospect 

 of further advancement on the lines they have followed ; at the 

 same time, they recognise that other breeds which had been in an 

 insignificant position and had not challenged supremacy with them 

 until recent years, are now strong competitors. These men are 

 not blind to facts, and recognise that they must take drastic 

 measures to hold their position, although it be by recasting their 

 models by bringing in new blood. There is nothing contrary in 

 this to what has been done before. Our breeds, almost without 

 exception and these generally insignificant breeds have been 

 built up by the amalgamation of two or more types. Those who 

 have watched the breeds for a few decades cannot recognise other 

 than that at times some of them have been recast by help from 

 breeds not popularly supposed to be included in the accepted 

 composition of the breeds. Rather more than twenty years ago 

 I mentioned in an article on Cross-breeding in Sheep, published in 

 the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, when treating of 

 pure breeding, that " even in some high-class flocks it is often 

 difficult to believe that some stranger has not been there." 



The late Mr. Charles Howard, of Biddenham, than whom no one 

 stood, in his day, in more repute as a breeder and judge (in fact 

 he was referee for all classes of stock at the Jubilee Royal Show 

 at Windsor), in discussing the article with me at the time, said that 

 there was no doubt as to its being done. Moreover, he implied that 

 he recognised it in the breed with which he was most intimately 

 associated. The fact is, changes in type have sometimes been 

 too sudden for them to have been brought about by ordinary 

 selective means. Probably much good has been done in this 

 way ; but when it is done, it should be notified to the breed society 

 most affected, and the society should not allow animals so in- 

 fluenced to enter the show ring until it is assured that all risk of 

 the injuries from cross breeding which mongrelism can give rise 

 to are removed. The change and improvement in sheep breeding 

 have always gone hand in hand with improving farm methods, 

 and these changes have been essential. The future may have 

 some additional conditions in farming to make it necessary to 

 alter the types of sheep to make them adapt better to them ; 

 but the likelihood of this is difficult to see, at any rate in any marked 

 degree. It therefore rests very much with the future to deal with 

 the material at hand, and to produce such sheep as best meet 



