io8 MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



that this is the most useful type we have in this country, and I 

 often hear men talk of improving this breed. If any one wishes 

 to take them out of their native counties and do so, they may, 

 and with some profit for a butcher's sheep;. but I hope there will 

 be no tampering with the type of those sheep in their native soils; 

 for if the ewe were altered in her present size, milking qualities, 

 and robust constitution, it would be a national loss, especially in 

 the midland counties, where those fine slashing big ewes have no 

 equal for producing fat lambs or good two-year-old butcher's wed- 

 ders for the Dublin market. What the Cheviot is to the Lowlands 

 of Scotland the Roscommon is to the midland counties of Ire- 

 land, with the difference that the Scotch breeder has to produce 

 size from the Cheviot by the sire used ; but this sheep will give 

 size to the produce of any sire used. The only thing gained by 



Roscommon Sheep. 



crossing the Roscommon ewe is early maturity, and by a proper 

 cross suitable to the soil on which they have to feed and the market 

 they have to meet, they will produce a sheep that for mutton, bone, 

 and weight, will be second to none in any country, and for breed- 

 ing fat lambs they have few equals for house-fed or very early 

 fat lambs. Some may do as well, but when the season advances, 

 and when weight is wanted in a lamb as well as fat, then this 

 ewe excels all others.' 



"Some stockmen who are avowed patrons of other breeds, 

 hold that Roscommons do not mature early enough, and are not 

 therefore so suitable for market requirements. This breed, like 

 all classes of stock bred in the west, is kept more in a natural 

 way, and it is doubtful if they have undergone as much forcing 

 and pampering as other breeds of sheep, either for the show ring 

 or the butcher's block. In the latter case we must not, however, 

 lose sight of the butcher's adage that 'when you have done weigh- 



