274 BREEDING AND CROSSING. 



German Saxon wool-growers, and consequently a system has 

 been adopted of breeding from different families of the same 

 race. This unquestionably is the best course, where the flocks 

 are about perfect, as the males interchanged have shades of 

 difference impressed by soil, herbage, and treatment, and the 

 defects of each family have a good chance to be counteracted 

 by the perfections of the other. By this means the bad points 

 are gradually lessened, and of course are succeeded by other 

 valuable properties. 



CROSSING. 



The next system adopted in breeding, is crossing an infe- 

 rior race by another possessing properties desirable to ac- 

 quire. This, it will at once be conceded, is the most proper 

 course for us, as it will be the means of most speedily dimin- 

 ishing the imperfections which characterize the forms and 

 fleeces of a large majority of American flocks. Where the 

 contrast is so great as it is between the ordinary sheep of the 

 country and the pure Merino and Saxon, years will be re- 

 quired of patience, steady perseverance, and nice discrimina- 

 tion in selecting from generation to generation, before the 

 goal of perfection will be reached. Many sheep-farmers 

 imagine that two or three crosses will accomplish their ob- 

 ject, whereas nothing scarcely is more absurd to expect. The 

 greater the contrast, or less homogeneousness of the breeds 

 crossed, the greater length of time will be required, and skill 

 necessary to employ. The proper steps to be taken in the 

 process of crossing, the writer will endeavor familiarly to 

 illustrate. 



The object sought, we will suppose, is the improvement, 

 for the most part, of the fleece, by changing its character 

 from openness and coarseness to the opposites, fineness and 

 compactness, or improvement in quantity as well as quality. 

 The ewes we will imagine are the more ordinary grades and 

 the ram of the Merino blood, the good pedigree of which 

 there can be no question, and whose fleece comes fully up 

 to the object of our wishes. 



The result of the first cross will exhibit a few, the wool of 

 which about their shoulders approximates that of the sire, 

 while of other parts there will be great discrepancies, and 

 especially so in the region of the rumps and thighs. x\ll will 

 manifest a general improvement over the dams, and a few a 

 marked likeness of form to the sire ; taking the whole to- 



