The Lincoln- Romney Cross. 53 



The already more or less delicate constitution in early 

 life would not be improved. The Romney, on the other 

 hand, would come to the shearing board parti-fleeced, 

 the charcoal of the burnt timber in log country breaking 

 the finer fibred and more upright wool, which would be 

 readily torn off by logs, branches of trees, stumps. The 

 Lincoln has the type of wool and the Romney the con- 

 stitution and sound hoof, and the blend seems to be all 

 that is desired for the special conditions, and its adapta- 

 bility to the country concerned seems to brand it as a 

 cross of marked utility. The fleece of the cross rapidly 

 dries after rains, which is not the case with the Lincoln, 

 and this, where there is much wet, has an important 

 bearing upon the health of the animal. Half or three- 

 quarter Lincoln-Romney ewes make first-class mothers 

 for the rearing of fat lambs. 



Objections have been heard to the cross, but they 

 are more on theoretical than practical grounds. The 

 best objection should come from those who have tried 

 the cross and compared it with other crosses or breeds 

 on the particular country involved, and they don't seem 

 to make their appearance. It is argued technically that 

 a cross of a full-lustre woolled sheep such as the Lincoln 

 with a demi-lustre such as the Romney is wrong in prin- 

 ciple from a wool point of view. This is met by the con- 

 tention that the large numbers of farmers who use the 

 cross are satisfied with their wool returns, comparable 

 at all times with the wool returns of other breeds and 

 crosses, and the fact that the scope of use for all or any 

 wool is much increased of late years, and wool is by no 

 means the sheep's chief source of income from such 

 good country, even were the Lincoln-Romney wool of 

 an unsuitable kind, which it most certainly is not, for 

 it is much prized by the American wool buyers. But 

 overbearing any objection is the argument that the cross 

 is one eminently adapted by size, constitution, sound- 

 ness of feet, good lambing, wool and mutton return, in 



