SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 16S 



these material ones, like those just enumerated. And these defects Are U 

 be met and counterbalanced by the decided excellence (sometimes lunning 

 to a fault) of the ewe, in the same joints. If the ram is a little too long 

 legged, the shortest-legged ewes should be selected for him ; if gummy 

 the dryest-wooled ewes ; if his fleece is a trifle below the proper standaro' 

 of fineness, (but he has been retained, as it often happens, for weight of 

 ficece and general excellence,) he is to be put to the finest and lightest 

 fleeced ewes, and so on. Having a selection of rams, this system of couii 

 terbalancing would require little skill, if each parent possessed but om. 

 fault. If the ewe was a tiifle too thin fleeced, and good in all other par 

 Mculars, it would require no nice judgment to decide that she needed to bt 

 .red to an uncommonly thick- fleeced ram. But most animals possess, to 

 a greater or less degree, several defects. To select so that every one oi 

 tliese in the dam shall meet its opposite in the male, and vice versa, re 

 quires not only plentiful materials to select from, but the keenest dis 

 crimination. The time and the convenient method of selecting the ewes 

 for the several rams, and the subsequent management, will be hereaftei 

 pointed out. 



We will now suppose that the breeder has established his flock — that 

 he has done so successfully, and given them an excellent character. He 

 is soon met with a serious evil. He must " breed in-and-in," as it is called 

 — that is, interbreed between animals more or less nearly related in blood 

 — or he must seek rams from other flocks, to the risk of losing or changing 

 the distinctive character of his flock, hitherto sought so sedulously, and 

 built up with so much care. It is contended by the opponents of in-and-in 

 breeding that it renders diseases and all other defects hereditary, and that 



t tends to decrease of size, to debility, and a general breaking up of the 

 constitution. Its apologists, on the other hand, insist that, if the parents 

 are perfectly healthy, incestuous connexion does not, per se, tend to any 

 diminution of healthiness in the offspring ; and they also claim, what must 

 be conceded, that it enables the skillful breeder much more rapidly to 

 bring his flock to a particular standard or model — and much more easily 

 to keep it there — unless it be true that, in course of time, they will dwin- 

 ■lle and grow feeble. So far as the effect on the constitution is concerrfed, 

 l-oth positions may be, to a certain ejitent, true. But it is, perhaps, diffi- 

 cult to always decide with certainty when an animal is not only free from 

 disease, but from all tendency or predisposition toward it. A brother and 

 sister may be apparently healthy — may be actually so — but may possess 

 an idiosyncrasy which, under certain circumstances, will manifest itself. — 

 If these circumstances do not chance to occur, they may live, apparently 

 possessing a robust constitution, until old age. If bred together, their off- 

 spring, by a rule already laid down, will possess the idiosyncrasy in a 

 double degree. Suppose the ram be interbred with sisters, half-sisters, 

 daughters, grand-daughters, &c., for several generations, the predisposition 

 toward a particular disease — in the first place slight, now strong, and con- 

 stantly growing st'onger — will pervade, and become radically incorporated 



nto, the constitution of the whole flock. The first time the requisite ex- 

 citing causes are brought to bear, the disease breaks out, and, under such 

 circumstances, with peculiar severity aTid malignancy. If it be of a fatal 

 character, the flock is rapidly swept away ; if not, it becomes chronic, oi 

 jficrlodical at frequently recuriing intervals. The same remarks apply, in 

 part, to those defects of the outward form which do not at first, fn m their 

 ^lightness, attract the notice of the ordinary breeder. They are rapidly 

 increased until, aim st before thought of by the owner, they destroy the 

 value of tljo sli 3ep. That such are the common effects of in-and-in breed 

 ^ Y 



