28O MODERN SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



tion shows how a blanket should be made. The heavy line shows 

 the outline of the blanket. Some Shropshire breeders make a 

 detachable hood to protect the head covering of their sheep. This 

 is shown in the illustration before alluded to. 



JUDGING. 



Good judges of sheep are not so common as some imagine, 

 judging by the way some of those who officiate in that capacity 

 are sometimes scored* by exhibitors and the agricultural press. 

 One might handle a breed of sheep a lifetime and not be a really 

 good judge of that breed. To become a good judge of a breed one 

 must study that breed with an infatuation bordering on cranki- 

 ness ; and, moreover, must have that unerring eye and hand which 

 mean so much to the expert rifle shot. 



To insure anything like satisfaction to exhibitors and for 

 best -educational results, only practical judges should be selected 

 to pass on a ring of sheep. The selection of judges at some of 

 our fairs is little less than ridiculous. It would seem that some 

 people think they are qualified to judge anything they are asked 

 to judge, just as some writers write on every conceivable subject 

 of which they have no practical knowledge. Some day their 

 children or their grandchildren will hold them up to ridicule. It 

 is unfortunate that there is a dearth of good judges. A prominent 

 breeder recently remarked: "The man who is simply a theorist 

 and does not know how to handle sheep in a practical way and 

 manner had better leave the judging to other parties." . It would 

 seem that some so-called judges do not realize that exhibitors have 

 the right to be considered and that nothing is more discouraging 

 to a breeder of good animals than to see his animals wrongly placed 

 by an incompetent judge. 



When Charles Colling reached old age he remarked that if 

 he had his eyesight and the use of his fingers he would have no 

 fear of success in establishing another Shorthorn herd. Bates 

 considered handling or "touching" stock of vast importance, and 

 delighted in giving lectures to his friends with his own cattle 

 as object lessons. Even the Eomans knew what "touch" meant 

 and avoided rough animals. 



Of course it is understood that a purebred animal must fill 

 the eye as to type before "touch" counts for much. The defects 

 of conformation of cattle, horses, swine, etc., are more easily de- 

 tected than those of sheep, since they are usually clothed in fleeces 

 which, whether manipulated by the deft hands of the shepherd or 

 left in their natural state, bar one from determining with any 

 degree of accuracy the perfection or imperfections of the body 

 that lie hidden beneath the woolly blanket. George McKerrow, 

 the senior member of the well-known Wisconsin firm of Oxford 



