Sheep in relation to their Surroundings. 9 



to select from them the most suitable to any special 

 aspects of climate or land, just as surely as it is necessary 

 to graze no sheep on certain lands that are not suited 

 to sheep. 



A breed of sheep may be kept on unsuitable land 

 for many years, but profits absent themselves, and what 

 kind of a sheep does time degenerate it into ? Proximate 

 profits or fancy often influence farmers in their selection 

 of kinds or breeds. Questions of the suitability of clim- 

 ate and land a.re removed from their place of central 

 importance, and a certain breed of a certain animal is 

 frequently introduced to the cold friendship of unsuit- 

 able surroundings. The extreme of this may be observed 

 when land that is preferably adapted for cattle, and a 

 certain breed of cattle at that, is used for a fancied breed 

 of sheep, less suited maybe to those conditions than 

 another breed of sheep. This is in conflict with the 

 special or individual provisions of nature, and does not 

 tend ultimately towards the greatest utility and profit 

 of the land involved. Also it may deny to a permanent 

 pasture which is particularly important to a country 

 like New Zealand, where logs and hills often preclude 

 the renewing of such pastures the best chance to pre- 

 serve its usefulness, and therefore in measure affects the 

 value of the la.nd as a marketable commodity. This may 

 be better understood when the result of continuous 

 grazing of cattle land by sheep, or sheep land by cattle, 

 is observed. Many pastures however, can be more profit- 

 ably and successfully used for the grazing of both cattle 

 and sheep in a proportion and manner determined by the 

 peculiarities of each case. 



To each province of New Zealand nature allots wide 

 variations with respect to soil, temperature, rainfall, 

 altitudes, grade of land, shelter, etc., providing if the 

 best is to be made of the land, unlimited scope for study 

 of kinds and breeds of stock, and their adaptability to 



