Merino Ryeland Breed of Sheep. . 519 



CHAPTER IX. 



Little Judgment to be formed as to the JTool or Carcase of the Men'no-Ryeland 

 Sheep from those cf the Lamb. Lambs weaned at once. Question as to getting 

 rid of the Horn. Shortened ivitb the Saw. Usefnl for Marking. The Ear 

 usually employed for that Purpose. The Method of Sir Joseph Banks the best. 

 Fitch-mark on the Wool. No effectual Substitute hit/jerto discovered. Red-hot 

 Iron on the Forehead. 



Jl ROM what I have said above with regard to the relative quality of tlie lambs- 

 wool, it will easily be inferred that, in them, I have never been able to form a de- 

 cisive judgment as to the future fineness of the fleece ; and I am persuaded that a 

 still worse decision can, at that period, be made as to the size and proportions of 

 the carcase. In the month of October I have usually divided my ram-lambs into 

 classes by numbering them, with a view, where it was practicable, to keep them 

 separate according to their size and strength ; and I have often found that some 

 of those, which were then among the smallest and worst, became, by the following 

 summer, the heaviest and best proportioned. After the shearing them, I have ex- 

 amined them carefully, weighed a good many of those which I preferred, and 

 accurately noted' down the particulars. Even so soon as two months afterwards, 

 when I have repeated the same examination, I Ipve found a change in them, not 

 aj. all proportioned to what their former appearance promised. I go still further, 

 and say, that our judgment, as to the qualities of wool and carcase in this breed of 

 sheep, cannot be accurately formed before they are 25 years old; forwhich reason I 

 do not like either to employ or part with my shearling rams, and much less my 

 lambs. The same circumstances make me much more averse to die castration of 

 the lambs ; which I never perform except on those, which have either sprung from 

 coarse wooUed ewes, or are grossly defective in point of carcase. Some loss, both 

 of profit and credit, is, doubdess, sustained, by being obliged annually to cut a 

 considerable number of 4-tooth rams ; but this loss bears no comparison with that 

 of an excellent ram. Ignorant persons foolishly wonder that, for such a ram of the 

 Merino race, Mr. Toilet refused 200 guineas ; but to a man solicitous for the 



