CHAPTER IV 

 METHODS OF IMPROVEMENT 



Feeding and Shepherding. Good feeding and shepherding 

 have played an important part in the making of the modern breeds 

 of sheep. The providing of better feed through bringing the root 

 and clover crops to England helped to pave the way for the breed 

 improvement that came later. Evidently Bakewell recognized the 

 value of good feed and care, for he kept about him faithful old 

 herdsmen and grooms who were very painstaking in the feeding 

 of the animals under their care. Doubtless he and other great 

 breeders since his time would say that any method of breeding con- 

 ducted with poorly nourished animals will fall short of marked 

 results, for if the animal is not well fed, it cannot exhibit its maxi- 

 mum possibilities and these must be seen if substantial progress-' is 

 to be made. 



Methods of Breeding. Selection has been the keynote in breed 

 improvement no matter what the method followed may have been, 

 and the success of great breeders has been traceable, in no small 

 degree, to their superior judgment in selecting breeding stock. 



Mass Breeding. Selection without special reference to ances- 

 try, or what has been termed mass breeding, was one of the first 

 methods of breeding to be employed in the improvement of sheep. 

 Breeders took the native sheep in their community and began their 

 work by breeding what they considered the best. Perhaps some of 

 the less desirable females were rejected, but mass breeding, as 

 practiced in earlier times, extended little farther than the selection 

 and use of what were judged to be the best rams. The Spaniards 

 must have improved the wool of their sheep by this method. They 

 also kept flocks pure within themselves, but their reason for so 

 doing was that each of the large breeders considered his flock the 

 best in the kingdom and believed that the introduction of blood 

 from other flocks would cause retrogression rather than improve- 

 ment. In England some improvement was made by selecting the 

 best of the native stock for breeding purposes, but before Bakewell's 

 time, unwarranted emphasis was often placed on very minor points. 

 For example, in a certain community breeders would have nothing 



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