446 SHEEP 



modern trade. In feeding experiments at the Iowa experiment 

 station Lincoln wether lambs in one trial made an average daily 

 gain of .5 5 pound and in another trial of .46 pound. The price 

 paid for the carcass was $4.50 and $5.25 per hundred, compared 

 with $4.75 and" $5. 7 5 respectively, the highest price paid. The 

 Lin coins dressed out 55.7 and 51.08 per cent in the carcass, 

 which was about an average of the breeds tested. Comparatively 

 few feeding experiments with Lincolns are recorded. 



The Lincoln as a feeding sheep ranks very well. With suitable 

 and abundant food it matures early and will fatten rapidly. Its 

 temperament is very quiet and docile, well suited to folding or 

 the feed lot. 



The Lincoln as a grazing sheep is best adapted to moderately 

 dry upland meadows, where food is abundant. In the hill coun- 

 try the breed has never made a success and has not secured a 

 foothold. Some English writers have called attention to the 

 eminent fitness of the Lincoln to the meadows of Lincolnshire, 

 but further note the fact that they soon deteriorate in most other 

 parts of England. In the Argentine, where great pastures of 

 superior quality exist, Lincolns are at present meeting with 

 much favor. 



The cross-bred or grade Lincoln is to-day an important factor in 

 the British mutton market. A large number of Lincoln rams 

 are used on the common ewes of the Argentine or on the grade 

 Merino ewes of Australia. A visit to the yards at Birkenhead, 

 England, where shiploads of live sheep are received from the 

 Argentine, shows the prevalence of Lincoln blood. These 

 crosses, or grades, make a big, growthy lamb which fattens easily 

 and furnishes a large chop or leg of mutton, more acceptable in 

 the English than in the American market. Lincoln rams have 

 been used to some extent on Merino grade ewes on our western 

 ranges, yet not in a large way. 



The Lincoln as a wool producer is of special interest. No breed 

 probably furnished so long a fleece. Wrightson reports samples 

 of Lincoln wool in his possession 21 inches long. The rules of 

 the National Lincoln Sheep Breeders' Association require a 

 growth of at least eight inches of fleece during one year. The 

 weight of the fleece, which is naturally coarse, may in the case 



