Establishing the Flock. 5 



rams are very inferior in type and conformation, 

 and will not make any improvement in a flock. 

 Breeders would improve the sheep industry if they 

 would use the knife, and castrate all inferior buck 

 lambs and sell them for mutton, as such rams do 

 not uplift sheep breeding, but on the other hand 

 degrade it. 



THE SELECTION OF THE RAM. 



It has been demonstrated that the ram is half, or 

 as some breeders say, even more than half of the 

 flock. The writer fully agrees with this statement, 

 as he has often observed surprisingly good results 

 from using a first-class sire on the most conunon 

 kind of females. It is doubtful whether in any 

 other line of animal breeding such rapid improve- 

 ment can be accomplished by the use of good sires 

 as in the case of sheep breeding. The best sires 

 are none too good. 



The first illustration in Plate 4 shows four Mon- 

 tana ewes bought on the range some years ago for 

 $2.25 per head. These ewes were very thin when 

 purchased and were just "sheep," for they showed 

 no evidence of belonging to any particular breed. 

 By the use of the pure-bred Southdown ram, which 

 is shown in Plate 5, the seven fine, well-built 

 lambs were raised in one season from the four 

 ewes. One of these lambs was good enough to 

 win the second prize at the International in a class 



