BRITISH BREEDS. 53 



fix a type even 011 so ^impressible aii animal as a sheep. 

 Consequently as, with the exception of the Merino, there has 

 never been any effort to make a special acclimatatiou and 

 variation by special treatment and culture, we are still rear- 

 ing what are essentially the foreign breeds* and of these 

 those native to Great Britain are the kinds kept on this 

 continent. 



Thus in describing the breeds now in the hands of 

 American shepherds, w T e f have so far nothing by which any 

 one of them may be differentiated as in any way American 

 by any variation. The descriptions of the varieties now kept 

 here, with those of some kinds not yet introduced or esta)> 

 lished to any extent, which will be given, very closely tally 

 with those found in the English live stock records, and this 

 we choose to do because so far we have not here departed 

 in any conspicuous manner from the real English types, as 

 indeed these are yet our own standards, and importations 

 are still making very freely to maintain these types. It is 

 a question sometimes discussed by the special live stock 

 journals here, if the time has yet come when we should 

 stop this continued importation to restore some supposed 

 failure in quality of the home bred sheep by deterioration 

 due to our -dryer climate and our different methods of feed- 

 ing. We do not join in this thought at all, but have the firm- 

 est possible belief that as with the American Merino so 

 with the other breeds of foreign sources, the time will come 

 when our breeders may safely depend on our own flocks for 

 the sustentatiou of our adopted breeds, and put them on as 

 excellent a basis as we have put our Merino. This is not, 

 however, to be done in a day, nor is its work to be lightly 

 undertaken, but there are skillful and scientific breeders on 

 this side of the Atlantic who will in time take this work in 

 hand, and due encouragement should be given to their efforts 

 to establish true American breeds by the full acclimatation 

 of our present breeds, and others, whfch it is the intention 

 to show may be yet added to our stocks. In the meantime 

 we shall take advantage of the good work of the English 

 breeders whose best specimens of sheep will yet find an 

 acceptable market on this side of the ocean, and still further 

 furnish us material which in time we shall be sending back 

 across the ocean as welcome contrbutions of American skill 



