SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 273 



I have already spoken, in this Letter, incidentally, of the effect on the 

 fleece of the common sheep, by crossing with the Merino and breeding 

 steadily toward the latter ; and also of the mutton of this cross, as 

 well as that of the Merino and the English breeds. The result of 

 the cross with the common sheep has been sufficiently described. I would 

 add a few remarks in relation to that with the South-Down and Leicester 

 — both of which I have tried until sufficiently satisfied with the result. 

 Resolved on making an experiment with a Down and Merino cross, a few 

 years since, and finding it difficult to obtain Down ewes* of the proper 

 quality, I obtained a small, compact, exceedingly beautiful, fine and even- 

 fieeced. Down ram,t and crossed him with a few large-sized Merino ewes. 

 The half-blood ewes were bred to a Merino ram, and also their female 

 progeny, and so on. The South-Down form and disposition to take on 

 fat manifested itself, to a perceptible extent, in every generation which I 

 bred,| and the wool of many of the sheep in the third generation (|-blood. 

 Merino and 1-blood Down) was very even, and equal to medium, and 

 some of them to good medium Merino. Their fleeces were lighter than 

 the full-blood Merino, but increased in weight with each succeeding cross 

 back toward the latter. Their mutton of the first, and even the second 

 cross, was of a beautiful flavor — and it retained some of the superiority of 

 »South-Down mutton to the last. 



I at the same time purchased a few Leicester ewes,|| and, as in the 

 preceding case, taking one cross of the blood, I bred toward the Merino. 

 The mongrels, to the second genei"ation (beyond which I did not breed 

 them) were about midway between the size of the two parent stocks — 

 with wool shorter, but far finer and more compact than the Leicester — 

 their fleeces about the same in w'eight as in the present stock8§ — and alto- 

 gether they were a showy and profitable sheep, and well calculated to 

 please the mass of farmers. Their fleeces lacked evenness — their thighs 

 remaining disproportionately coarse and hairy ; and making up my mind 

 that this would always be a tendency of the sheep of this cross, 1 aban- 

 doned them without farther experiment. 



In relation to the number of crosses necessary before it is proper to 

 breed from a mongrel rarn, there is a difference of opinion. Mr. Livings- 

 ton says :^ 



" It is now so well established as not even to admit of the smallest doubt tliat a Merino in 

 the fourth generation, from even the worst-wooled ewes, is in every respect equal to the 

 stock of the sire. No difference is now made in Europe in the choice of a ram, whether he 

 is a full-blood or a fifteen-sixteenths." .... " The French agriculturists say that however 

 coarse the fleece of the parent ewe may have been, the progeny in the fourth generation 

 will not show it." 



I am constrained to differ with even this high authority. I admit that 

 the only value of blood or pedigree, in breeding, is to insure the hereditary 

 transmission of the properties of the parent to the offspring. As soon as 

 a mongrel reaches the point where he stamps his characteristics on his 

 progeny, with the same certainty that a full-blood does, he is equally 

 valuable, provided he is, individually, as perfect an animal. But I do not 



* To cai-ry out the commonly received principle in breeding, that in crossing between difterent races, tlio 

 ram of the smaller shoiilil be put to ewe of the larger one. 



t This ram, obtained from Francis Rotch, Et^q , was got by a prize ram of Mr. Ellman's, and from one of 

 his choicest breeding-ewes, and showed infinitely more style, aa well as fineness and evenness of wool, 

 than the common Downs of our country. Ho was not larger than a large-sized Jlerino ram. 



t These I finally put otFto save myself the trouble of breeding several kinds of sheep on the same farm. 



H Descended from the tlock of the late Robert Adcock. of Otsego County, N. Y. — considered at the time 

 equal to any flock in tlie State. 



& That is, about 5 lbs. I have put down the Leicester fleece, in my description of the breed, at 6 lbs., aa 

 this is the amount generally claimed for them ; but in the few ca«)a brought within my direct knowledge, 

 they have never averaged it .My owos above alluded to did not, I tbizik, average quite 5 lbs. 



% Essay on Sheep, pp. 181, 183. 

 (561) JS 



