116 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



To quote from an essay of Mr. Spooner : " When equal advan- 

 tages can be obtained by keeping a pure breed of sheep, such 

 pure breed should undoubtedly be preferred, and though cross- 

 breeding for the purposes of the butcher, is practised with 

 advantage and success, yet no one should do so for the purpose 

 of establishing a new breed, unless he has clear and well-defined 

 views of the object he wishes to accomplish, and has duely 

 studied the principles on which it can be carried out, and is 

 determined to bestow for the space of half a life-time his con- 

 stant and unremitting attention to the discovery and removal 

 of defects." Perhaps this is stated ratlier strongly, but in this 

 impatient country of ours \vc seldom find a farmer who can and 

 is willing to do this or any thing like it. 



The true object of breeding sheep is the acquirement of the 

 largest quantity of wool, mutton and tallow, of the best and 

 most salable quality, but it must be guided by skill, judgment 

 and experience, and must not be done at random. A great part 

 of the whole art of breeding lies in the principle of judicious 

 crossing, for it is only by attending properly to this that success 

 cixn be attained, and animals produced that shall yield the 

 greatest amount of profit for the food they consume. To carry 

 out the system of crossing properly, certain animals must be 

 kept pure of their kind, males especially ; indeed, no animal 

 possessing spurious blood, or an admixture with other breeds, 

 should be used. The produce in almost all cases assimilates to 

 the male parent in form, and in crossing sheep, the use of any 

 rams not of full blood is injudicious, and ought to be avoided. 

 In crossing, we must consider the influence of the individual 

 parents on the progeny ; the size of the animals, their habits 

 and dispositions, and their peculiarities in regard to the time of 

 their, maturity ; their fecundity and capability for rearing twins, 

 their Ilecces and fattening (qualities. Far too little attention is 

 })aid at the commencement of an undertaking in these impor- 

 tant matters. 



Farmers enter upon this most arduous part of their profession 

 with less skill and less perseverance than they would bestow in 

 any other branch of business, and proceed to breeding and 

 crossing without the knowledge of the first fundamental princi- 

 ple that should control it. In crossing, there are several impor- 

 tant things to be attended to. Well-formed parents ought to be 



