222 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



effect of close breeding (especially where the chance of selection of breeders is 

 very limited), we doubt not that their stock of sheep will maintain its superior- 

 ity ; and hope for them, what too rarely happens, that their zeal and outlay may 

 be well encouraged and requited. 



With some exceptions, the mischievous practice has been to import very supe- 

 rior animals, and then to go on breeding from all their progeny, good and bad, 

 instead of rigidly rejecting all inferior females, and frequently introducing the 

 best males from abroad. It is only by this system that imported stock of any 

 kind can be kept from degenerating, and it is exactly by the neglect of this man- 

 agement that we have witnessed everywhere so much deterioration. Another 

 question arises : Suppose a willingness to be thus cautious and particular — how 

 many of our farmers have the judgment (the result both of zeal and experience) 

 to select the best and to doom all defective animals to the knife ? For he who 

 has it at heart that a particular race of animals shall be maintained in their pu- 

 rity, and continue to be esteemed for their peculiar excellence, will refuse to sell 

 as breeders, at any price, such animals as he may himself condemn as defective 

 —because, sooner or later, the stock itself falling into general disrepute, the in- 

 jury will come back upon himself There are those — we won't, for we can't, 

 say gentlemen— among farmers who think it a smart thing to put off an inferior 

 animal on a stranger or a friend whom they find not skilled in the points that 

 constitute a good one. Such men belong to and ought to be^lassed in the cate- 

 gory of sharpers and horse-jockeys, who fabricate pedigrees and sell blind horses 

 for sound ones. 



At the late Fair at Saratoga we took two gentlemen, strangers, to look at 

 two pens of fine Merino sheep, and asked the men in charge, in both cases, what 

 was the average weight of fleece of the flock from which these sheep had been 

 selected? Taking us, probably, either for the Judges on their rounds, or for 

 very oreen ones, in both cases they said the average was not less than seven 

 pounds ! Now the sentiment excited was that of unmitigated disgust, and no 

 purchase would have been made at any price from those who employ such very 

 knowing shepherds or agents. On the other hand, without meaning any invid- 

 ious comparisons beyond the cases stated, there was a worthy Scotchman, in 

 charge of Mr. McIntire's sheep, who answered frankly and honesily to all 

 questions as to his stock, without any mean attempt to disparage any others. 



Gentlemen should be attentive to these things, for, trifling as they may seem, 

 they have a bearing on the character of the profession, as well as a local bear- 

 ino- about which no one can feel indifferent who is animated by that esprit du 

 corps which should influence agriculturists as well as other classes. 



But our business is with Mr. Reybold^s Annual Sales — to express the hope 

 and confidence that every precaution will be taken to maintain his flock at the 

 hif^hest mark of improvement, and that he will never allow a diseased or defec- 

 tive animal knowingly to pass from his own into the breeding flock of any one, 

 even through the hands of the butcher— acting, in this respect, on the principle 

 of a certain Maryland breeder of Devons, whom we will not name, but who 

 would sooner give away the best than sell a degenerate and unworthy beast, as 

 a breeder, for any price. 



Mr. Clayton Reybold sold at his farm, near Delaware City, on the 1st of September, a 

 lot of his superior Oxfordshire and Leicester sheep, at the followiug prices : 



No 1 $61— Maj. Peter, Montgomery County, Md. ; No. 2, $44— Mr. Carroll, Baltimore , No. 3, 

 $40— Mr. Gray, Philadelphia; No. 4, $43, and No. 5, $100— Mr. Griscom, New-Jersey; No. 6, 



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