CROSSING ENGLISH AND COMMON SHEEP, 135 



_ An analagous course of crossing might he resorted to 

 witli great profit by those farmers in our Western States, who 

 prefer to make mutton production the leading object of their 

 sheep husbandry, and who now grow those immense flocks of 

 " common sheej)j" which are annually driven eastward to find 

 a market. A single proper cross of English blood on these 

 sheep would produce a stock which it would cost little more 

 to raise than it now costs to raise common sheep in the most 

 profitable way, and which would habitually command 50 per 

 cent, more in market and be ready for market a year earlier 

 than the common sheep. They would require good feed and 

 consequently not overstocked ranges in summer, and comfort- 

 able sheds and an abundance of corn in winter. In regions 

 where the latter can be grown more cheaply than its equivar 

 lent in meadow hay in the Atlantic States, nay, more cheaply 

 than an equivalent of prairie hay can be cut and stored on 

 the same farm, it is a sufficiently cheap feed ; and no one will 

 fatten sheep more rapidly or produce more wool.* The value 

 of the wool would not be lessened by any of the proper 

 English crosses, and would be considerably increased by some 

 of them. 



The selection of the English family for the purposes of 

 the above cross should be made with strict reference to local 

 circumstances. On rich, sufficiently moist lands, unsubject to 

 summer drouth, bearing an abundance of the domesticated 

 grasses, and near good local mutton markets, the unrivalled 

 earliness of maturity in the Leicester would give it great 

 advantages ; but it would bear no even partial deprivation of 

 feed, no hardships of any kind, and no long drives to distant 

 markets. The Cotswold is a hardier, better working and 



for breeding purposes, to be sold as mutton ; and, living in the mutton-growing region 

 and having more land than is necessary for nis breeding flock, he pursues the follow- 

 ing course. He purchases the common shee^of the Western States — say, one part 

 Merino to three parts of coarse-wooled varieties — as soon as they begin to be driven 

 eastward, about mid-summer or a little later. He has generally, in past years, bought 



food ones IrOm $2.50 to $3.00 a head. It is necessary that they have some Merino 

 lood or they will not take the ram early enough. He puts them to a South Down ram 

 as near as practicable to the first of September. The ewes are kept on hay in winter 

 until just before lambing, when they get turnips, and after lambing, meal or bran slop 

 in addition. The lambs are also fed separately. Theytare B0I4 when they reach 40 lbs. 

 weight, and all are generally disposed of by first of June. They have always brought 

 $5 a head on the average. The ewes having only to provide for themselves during 

 summer get into good condition, and a little grain fed to them after, frost has touched 

 the grass ripens them for the butcher. They, too, have sold for $5 a head, on the 

 average. • If the fleece, manure, and one dollar a head in addition, will pay for the 

 keeping, this leaves 200 per cent, net profit. One hnndred and fifty per cent, ought to 

 leave a margin wide enough for all casualties. See Mr. Thome's letter to me in my 

 Eeport on Sine -Wool Husbandry, 1862, p. 104. 



* I mean com cut up and cured with all the ears on, and fed out in that state. The 

 system of Western keeping and corn feeding will be fUlly examined in Chapter XXI 

 of this volume. 



