THE GENESEE FARMER. 



wool is shorter than long-wools in general, but much 

 longer than the middle-wools, the ordinary length 

 of staple from 5 to 7 inches, varying much in fineness 

 and weight. 



Tlie new Leicester breed is, in an aggregate view, 

 better or more perfect than any of the other races 

 of long-wooled sheep; and it has abundantly proved 

 itself capable of imparting some improvement to every 

 one of them by crossing, and at the same time has 

 derived no advantage from any in return, but can be 

 maintained in vigor only by being kept pure, and 

 perpetuated from the best of its own stock. New 

 Leicester sheep, as regards their feeding qualities, are 

 more profitable orn rich low pastures than any other 

 sheep whatever; they come earlier to maturity than 

 even the South Downs — a new Leicester wether being 

 fat at 22 mouths, while a South Down one is seldom 

 as far forward till he become a twelvemonth older; 



produced ; but from the subsequent multiplication 

 of the new Leicester breed, modern breeders are re- 

 lieved from all necessity of this kind. They can 

 obtain individuals of the form required from different 

 flocks of the same breed, and need never, by a con- 

 tinued adherence to the blood of one family, produce 

 animals too delicate in form, deficient in weight of 

 wool, and in that hardness and soundness of consti- 

 tution, which are even more necessary than the per- 

 fectness of individual form for the safety and profit 

 of the breeder. The sacrifice of the secondary pro- 

 perties which Bakewell did not hesitate to make, 

 was the result of circumstances which do not now 

 exist ; and the present feeling of the breeders is to 

 maintain a larger and more robust form of the ani- 

 mals than seemed good to the earlier improvers. 

 Thus, the Cots wold breed of sheep, though far infe- 

 rior in form to the pure new Leicester, is maintaining 



■^ Ti««ii»£:J t^of't>£r" 



NEW LEICESTER SHEEP. 



and they contain in their carcass a gi'eater amount 

 of dead weight m proportion to the amount of live 

 weight than any other breed — the flesh and fat being 

 accumulated more externally, and in the greatest de- 

 gree in the most profitable parts, and in the least 

 degi'ce in the coarse points. Some of the chief dis- 

 advantages of the breed, as compared with the charac- 

 ters and properties of other good breeds, are inferior 

 prolificity, feeble nursing powers, deficiency in bulk 

 of fleece, comparative weakness of constitution, pre- 

 disposition to inflammatory diseases, and inability to 

 bear exposure to a churlish climate or to inclement 

 weather. These, defects, however, are less now than 

 in the days of Bakewell ; and whenever purity 

 of breed is not an object, they can be much reduced 

 or entirely overcome by crossing with such breeds 

 as the Cotswold and the Bampton Notts. " Bake- 

 well was compelled, in a sense, to confine himself to 

 his own stock, and to the blood of one family, in 

 order to preserve that standard of form which he" had 



a successful rivalship with it over a large extent of 

 country ; the lowland Gloucestershire, the Devon- 

 shire, and many of the Lincolnshire agi-iculturists, are 

 propagating a larger race than is approved of by the 

 Leicester breeders; and even in the north of England, 

 where the Leicester breed was early established, a 

 heavier race is preferred to the purest of the Dishley 

 stock." 



New Mexico has the extraordinary number of 

 377,271 sheep — more than six to each inhabitant — 

 proving the soil and climate of that territory to be 

 well adapted to this description of stock, and giving 

 promise of a large addition from that quarter to the 

 supply of wool. The importance of fostering this 

 great branch of national production is shown by the 

 fact, as assumed by an intelligent writer on the 

 subject, that our population annually consumes an 

 amount of wool equal to seven pounds for each 

 person. 



