LONG WOOLS. 73 



used, and has more modernised it. The meat and the carcase 

 are improved, and it is no longer necessary to keep them three 

 or four years before fattening them. They come out at big weights, 

 but the wool is an especially good feature, being soft, rich and 

 full, good hoggets giving 10 lb., and average flocks 8 Ib. Very 

 great weights have been grown, some rams in high-class flocks 

 up to as much as 24 lb., and ewes from 14 lb. to 16 lb. To the 

 Flanagans, Flynns, Cotton, Roberts, Taafe, and Blood Smyth 

 (Co. Limerick), the breed owes much of its early improvement, 

 and, in some instances, its later. 



The Roscommon is an excellent grazier. Moreover, it crosses 

 well with the Down and Black-faced sheep. Visitors to Ireland 

 who knew it twenty-five years ago cannot fail to notice how much 

 cross-breeding there has been, and it is very striking how this 

 prevails even in districts and in climates where it would probably 

 not be expected. Good early maturing lambs are raised from 

 the cross, the strong mothers supplying plenty of milk. Like 

 the other long-woolled breeds of these islands, it is a hornless 

 breed. The face is long and white, the indigenous grey of the 

 faces, as well as of the legs, having been bred out. 



There is usually a tuft of wool on the forehead ; the ears have 

 been modified to a finer texture and moderate length. The sheep 

 has an excellent constitution, and is finding some support abroad. 

 Moreover, it could be brought quite in line with other long-woolled 

 breeds without unduly sacrificing its vigour. The endeavour 

 on the part of some of the early breeders to depend too much 

 on selection, and avoidance of outside help, retarded its develop- 

 ment, and made them slower in bringing forward the breed. With 

 an instillation of more advanced blood, a foundation was formed 

 on which to work, and breeders can now keep clear from new 

 introductions. The old idea that it is necessary to retain only 

 indigenous blood in a breed is exploded. It is advantageous to 

 keep it in in a marked degree where the sheep are required to remain 

 under very similar conditions to those under which the breed 

 characteristics were formed ; but with a variation of these, and a 

 desire to alter them, it has rarely paid to adhere to only one breed, 

 although, after admixture, selection may do best without further 

 addition. 



