52 THE DOMESTIC SHEEP. 



of the time sheep from his flock. It is an amazing thing to 

 an American to see such a sight in this advanced age and 

 compare it with what he sees among the flocks of his own 

 country or those of England and Scotland. 



The famed cheese of Roquefort, however, leads the 

 traveler in search of information about the sheep of this 

 country to a somewhat more entertaining sight. This is the 

 flocks of quite good sheep kept for their milk, of which the 

 finest cheese in the world is made, and which brings in the 

 New York stores one dollar a pound. The ewes are regu- 

 larly milked, and having been bred for this product, yield 

 quite a considerable quantity of rich milk. The sheep's mUk 

 is rich in fat, having one half more of it than that of a 

 cow. This sheep is kept and fed with much care on the 

 sweet pastures of the limestone soil of this noted locality. 

 They are a well formed race with good frames, but not noted 

 for their proclivity for wool bearing. 



At the French agricultural exhibitions the imported 

 English sheep take the first prizes, and the favored breeds 

 of them are the Southdowns and the Oxfords, certainly prov- 

 ing that the most advanced of the French shepherds have at 

 least some faculty for distinguishing good sheep sometimes. 



The advanced American shepherd, however, has not 

 much to learn from the French sheep breeders except so far 

 as to discover the effects of ages of neglect, as well in a few 

 instances the advantages of skillful breeding. The though': 

 occurs, unavoidably, that it is a mark of the high civilization 

 of a people to find fine flocks of sheep, as it is equally to 

 find intelligent and skillful breeders in any country. 



France has something over twenty-one million of shoop 

 of which there are 302.481 rams, about thirty ewes for each 

 ram, nearly 4.000.000 wethers, nearly as many yearling 

 lambs, and 4,700,000 young lambs, according to the census 

 of 1895, which is the last one published. 



BRITISH BREEDS OF SHEEP. 



The Merino, previously described as the American, is the 

 only breed which we can claim as distinctly a product of 

 the energy and skill of American breeders. It must be 

 taken into account that to establish a breed, much time is 

 required; a century is short enough to establish and firmly 



