MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 167 



have found out your ability as a shepherd. Start with good sheep, 

 even if they have to be good grades. 



ENVIRONMENT. 



Environment cuts a very important figure in sheep raising. 

 It is a well known scientific fact that when animals or plants 

 are removed from their natural districts to one entirely differ- 

 ent in climate, some surprising changes take place. Almost 

 immediately after the removal is made, they change their char- 

 acter and habits to conform with their new homes or else cease 

 to exist. Wool-bearing sheep, transformed from northern climates 

 to the tropics change their coat to a thin covering of straggling 

 hair, scarcely resembling wool, therefore the question of breed 

 should be largely one of environment. All breeds have merit 

 where they are kept under proper environment. On poor, rough, 

 rugged farms, some of the smaller breeds do better tha;i the 

 heavier breeds, and it would be too much to expect a Lincoln, 

 a product of low, fertile lands, to thrive on the bleak sparsely 

 grassed highlands of Scotland or the rougher sections of New 

 England or Montana. Further, few breeds would thrive in the 

 marshy Eomney Marsh districts of England, where the breed of 

 that name is perfectly at home, for the reason that it is indigen- 

 ous to that locality. 



Naturally, it takes pretty good land to raise good specimens 

 of the larger breeds of sheep, but all good land is not ideal for 

 sheep raising. Our corn belt lands are rich enough, but lack too 

 much of lime to make ideal sheep farms. In England some of 

 the best sheep are raised on thin lands situated on chalk for- 

 mations, notably in Wiltshire, where the Hampshire holds forth. 



Arthur Young, the famous. English agricultural writer, once 

 remarked: "The different breeds of sheep in the park of the 

 Earl of Egremont at Pitworth in Essex, when left alone, habit- 

 ually made their way to such localities as their inherited instincts 

 suggested. Lord Egremont had three flocks, Southdown, New 

 Leicesters and Herefordshire sheep. The Leicesters are con- 

 stantly grazing in a vale where the land is richest. The South- 

 downs on a hill, the soil of which is of a good quality and some- 

 what resembling their native pastures. The Herefords are never 

 seen absent from a high, poor hill, the worst spot in the whole 

 park, and which was till then rejected by whatever animals have 

 been kept there. Nevertheless the Herefords, though always on 

 the worst land, were in condition as good as the Leicesters. Each 

 flock kept strictly to itself, chance stragglers not attempting to 

 join another flock." 



It is in England where environment is studied more or less 

 scientifically, as farmers know by long experience pretty well 



