CHAPTER XVI. 



CHOOSING A BREED. 



In considering the question of the breed of sheep 

 to use for the conditions of any particular locality, not 

 only have the qualities of the land and the bearing of 

 climate to be accounted, but the particular market it is 

 most profitable to serve has to be weighed. In regard to 

 the latter, if the land is good and near market, and the 

 climate fairly humid, as it is in most parts of New 

 Zealand, the breeding of fat lambs is the most profitable 

 pursuit, and the fleece takes a place of minor import- 

 ance. The ewe gives, say, 7/- worth of wool, and the 

 lamb returns, we shall say, over double that, and there is 

 generally a larger lambing percentage than is given by 

 the purely wool ewe in its usual sphere. The extreme 

 opposite is in the case of poor land, such as dry hills of 

 no moisture containing ability, a distance away from 

 market, and then clearly wool is the foremost considera- 

 tion, for much flesh cannot be economically produced, 

 whatever the breed, on such land. There is the modi- 

 fication of poorish land near market, where mutton 

 growing may be strained at, and made profitable by the 

 aid of fodders and roots, manured at an expense propor- 

 tionate to the poorness of the land. And there is again 

 the case of good land of market inaccessibility where 

 a leaning may be made towards mutton growing, if not 

 directly, then by the rearing of store sheep of mutton 

 qualities, for disposal to the farmer with fattening land 

 near market. With a moist climate the good land for 

 successful mutton growing not only benefits by a larger 

 quantity of succulent grass growth, but whatever fodder 

 and root crops are grown do better. Perhaps the only 

 chance of successfully growing mutton in a very dry 



