ESTABLISHING A FLOCK AND IMPROVING IT 449 



chiefly to supply rams for certain conditions, as when 

 Lincolns furnish these to influence the character of the 

 fleece under semi-range conditions. The men are rare 

 who can force popularity, as it were, upon a community 

 where the breed has not been popular heretofore. When 

 the environment and the outlook for the successful dis- 

 posal of the increase are both in unison with the prefer- 

 ence which the breeder has for a certain breed, he is so 

 far fortunate, as he can then bring to his work an enthusi- 

 asm that would not exist to the same extent when breed- 

 ing sheep of some other breed. But natural preference 

 should never be allowed to outweigh the considerations 

 mentioned. 



The breeders of pure breds will be greatly handi- 

 capped in their work if they are located distant from a 

 railroad station. When thus located, buyers are less 

 likely to visit them, and the labor and time involved in 

 making shipments is greatly increased. Distance from a 

 railroad station beyond a certain limit in this fast age 

 would almost certainly bring failure to the enterprise, 

 though in other respects it should be well conducted. Be- 

 cause other breeders may be already established in a 

 neighborhood who breed the same kind of stock is no rea- 

 son why the beginner should not breed that class of stock. 

 It furnishes a strong reason why he should do so, as those 

 looking for animals of that particular breed will be more 

 ready to visit a locality with several breeders of a breed 

 than if only one breeder were located there, because it 

 gives them an opportunity of making selection in the line 

 of their desires. 



It is greatly important that the foundation animals 

 shall be well chosen. They should not only be correct 

 in regard to form for the breed, but also in all the lead- 

 ing characteristics that appertain to it. They should also 

 be correct in pedigree. Some beginners introduce founda- 

 tion stock indiflferent as to form and with no special merit 

 in the ancestral lines. They do so because these may be 



