20 



The same arguments can be applied they ought to 

 be and are to wool. A conformation suitable for the 

 slanghter-house is equally so for the production of wool. 

 Regularity of form and fitness for both the butcher and for 

 wool-producing are not incompatible ; they ought to exist 

 simultaneously, and they are all tne more desirable, inasmuch 

 as they constitute in animals thus advantaged a union of 

 qualities which, after having rendered them profitable as wool 

 producers, leaves them in a position to command better prices 

 at the slaughter-house. 



If the growth oi wool is the sole desideratum, a show 

 of fleeces would have been sufficient. 



As the impressions made upon my mind by the Show 

 are what I have to place before you, permit me to say that 

 I do not think sufficient importance is attached to purity and 

 characteristics of breeds. Not less than in Australia and 

 England, do we, in France, seek a well-authenticated pedigree 

 for our reproducing animals ; but we also, and in the first 

 place, carefully examine the animal itself, aud should we dis- 

 cover signs of degeneracy or of crossing, the papers certifying 

 to the purity of its origin lose much of their value in our eyes ; 

 this course is not always adopted in New South Wales. 



The sub-division of Class 647 into sub-classes: 

 Merino : Fine Combing Wool ; and Merino : Heavy 

 Combing Wool is purely illusory from the moment that 

 animals bearing fleeces resembling each other in every respect 

 can be exhibited indifferently in either one of these sub-classes^ 



Whatever may have been the object proposed by 

 the organizers of the Sheep Show, and whatever may be 

 its result, I proceeded in the following manner, in order to 

 become fully acquainted with the exhibits : I examined each 

 ram separately, directing my attention specially to the 

 following points : Form ; purity of breed ; thickness of fleece 

 at shoulder ; quality of wool on all parts of the body; weight 

 of each prize animal ; weight of the fleeces of those rams 

 which had been sheared. 



I have expressed by points the degree of purity of 

 each animal ; and, in order to avoid all personalities, I pro- 

 pose to treat my notes as my own private documents. 



FORM. 



By the side of a small number of animals of good 

 conformation (though not so in all points), we find a larger 

 number whose shapes leave much to be desired, and others 

 are decidedly defective, judging them either in their entirety, 

 or in detail. We will therefore arrange the whole under 

 three classes : 



