CROSSES AND CKOSS-BBEEDING. 77 



valuable in its crosses with the Welsh sheep than the Black-face. 

 In fact, the Cheviot stands out as the breed which is influencing 

 modern breeds of sheep far more than any other, though the Black- 

 face is establishing itself, both as a pure breed and a cross breed, 

 over a very extensive and varied country. But this is more a 

 matter of direct substitution ; the large amount of crossing long- 

 wools with one or other of the Down breeds affects mutton pro- 

 duction the most at present. The Black-face has done remarkably 

 well on the Irish breeds. Being by origin a heath breed, though 

 altered by environment, and partaking many characteristics of 

 more truly mountain breeds, it mates well with other types in 

 which there was heath origin. But it also mates well with the 

 longer wools when judiciously handled. The place of the Black- 

 face in crossing is likely to be a greatly extended one. As it merges 

 in other breeds, and is kept in climates, on soils, under different 

 treatment and feeding, to those to which it has been subjected 

 for centuries, there will be doubtless many changes in its 

 characteristics. It is not always wise to fight against them when 

 the environment is changed. To keep a pure breed under totally 

 changed conditions to those under which it developed, and then 

 expect it will maintain the features commonly associated with 

 it, is ridiculous. It must change, and when the change means 

 adapting itself to new conditions, it is doing what it ought to do ; 

 and what are known as breed characteristics, in such circum- 

 stances should not be insisted upon. Whether it is of best economic 

 value for breeders of Southdowns at a distance from Sussex, as on 

 the Cambridgeshire chalks, to fight against the natural changes 

 which the local environment insist shall occur, merely for the sake 

 of keeping them to the Flock Book standard, is very debatable. 

 The Black-face has a great work in being used on some of the 

 breeds which have been developed on fat-making lines. It can be 

 a splendid infusion in recasting breeds. 



The Lincoln has proved itself a fine sheep for the county to 

 which it has long been attached. It did great work on many 

 long-wool breeds, and, as showing that it has possibilities that 

 ought not be ignored, it was the one important breed that was 

 used by the pioneers in the improvement of the native Cheviot. 

 It converted a breed of many good points and several inferior 

 ones into the prominent race it has become. It is not surprising, 

 therefore, that it mates well with other heath or (as they were 

 evolved by the aid of the Southdown), as they are called, Down 

 types, to produce a big carcase of meat and a good fleece of wool, 

 suitable for the rich pasturage of the land with which they are 

 identified. It is probably true that there is practically no race 

 that did not feel some effect from the Leicester, and it even touched 

 the Southdown in the earlier days, and doubtless among other 



