CROSS BREEDING. 123 



North, this practice may be made extremely profitable, for 

 the wool so procured; and this is done in localities where it 

 mjirlit be inconvenient to keep the higher classes of sheep 

 for the main flocks. In this way, -by the use of a Cotswold, 

 Shropshire, Leicester, or Lincoln rain in fact of any of the 

 special heavy-bodied and fleeced rams the produce may 

 be doubled with ease, and more profit, than the mere 

 doubling of the fleeces, by the heavier carcass. The first 

 cross so made is rarely disappointing to the flockmaster. 

 It is the basis of the wool product of those vast sheep ranges 

 of Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, and South Africa, 

 from whence a large business in shipping the frozen car- 

 casses in the cold-storage steamers expressly fitted for this 

 extensive and constantly increasing trade, is also thus se- 

 cured. 



The scientific process of cross breeding is based on the 

 well established principle that the first cross is always sat- 

 isfactory. The natural tendency to go back to the original 

 coarse or inferior race is not shown in the first cross. And 

 by judicious selection of this cross bred progeny it is possible 

 to make in time a settled and acclimated cross breed which 

 may become sufficiently prominent under a wide course 

 of selection and breeding during- a few years. But to do 

 this the ram is to be changed yearly, securing one from an 

 unrelated herd with the special needed character for the fur- 

 ther improvement of the flock, by the weeding out of inferior 

 ewes, and the retention of those which show the most 

 marked likeness to the parent ram. It is a frequent custom 

 among the Australian flockmasters to change the ram every 

 year with neighbors, or when large flocks are kept to divide 

 them up on the ranges, changing the rams from one to the 

 other. In this way a valuable cross breed is established in 

 time, but it is scarcely ever so firmly established on account 

 of the climatic difficulties in the w r ay, as have been men- 

 tioned above in this chapter, as to remove the necessity for 

 the infusion of new blood at such times as the need for the 

 renovation may become apparent. 



Only a few men are adapted by natural affinity and 

 shrewdness to succeed as breeders of a mixed flock. Long 

 years and close study, with a natural aptitude to judge of 

 needs, and the means of supplying them, are indispensable 



