THE MERINO SHEEP 



OF THE 



NATIONAL SHEEP STUD FARM 



OF 



RAMBOUILLET. 



(Rambouillet, Seine-et-Oise, France.) 



SEVERAL people having expressed a wish to have some 

 particulars regarding the sheep landed from France on the 

 4th of August last, and sent here specially for the Sydney 

 International Exhibition, we shall endeavour to comply. 



These sheep are generally known as French Merino or 

 Rambouillet. The French man-of-war Rhin landed eighteen; 

 three rams and nine ewes are the property of the French 

 Government, and are exhibited by the National Stud Farm 

 of Rambouillet ; two rams and four ewes belong to Mr. 

 Gilbert, the most renowned sheep breeder in France. They 

 come from the stud flock he has on his farm at Wideville. 



We do not pretend to explain to the sheep breeders of 

 New South Wales the benefit they can derive from sheep 

 breeding. They have long ere this shown to the world that 

 they have fully appreciated the real worth of the animal we 

 are now dealing with. In the first times of the sheep farming 

 in Australia, the breeders of New South Wales have insured 

 success by a complete and thorough adherence to this 

 principle, viz., that, in order to perpetuate in the breed the 

 characteristics of the sires, it is necessary to be certain that 

 they possess the requisite qualities, but above all that such 

 qualities are the natural inheritance of the sires, and also 

 that the animals must be properly tended in order to develop 

 such characteristics, if they exist in the sheep. Such 

 characteristics and qualities, resulting from the purity and 

 antiquity of the race, are found most perfect in the 

 Rambouillet Merinos. Let us glance briefly at the 

 Rambouillet stud farm, and the animals reared on it. The 

 Rambouillet Park was purchased by Louis XVI., from the 

 Duke of Penthievre, in 1773. Two years later His Majesty 

 caused it to be constituted into an experimental farm, more 

 specially devoted to the acclimatisation of useful plants and 

 animals, 



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