146 Sheep-Farming 



uniformity in appearance, size, and condition lowers 

 their value greatly. If, for any reason, the owner 

 allows part of his ewes to be of a type different from 

 that decided upon at the outset, he has made future 

 progress both diflBcult and unnecessarily expensive. 

 Good individual ewes of a different sort may seem 

 well worth the price asked for them, but if they are 

 not of the same sort as the rest of the flock, one of 

 two undesirable things is inevitable. To bring the 

 Iambs of the off-type ewes to the standard set, a 

 special ram must be used, or if this is not done, part 

 of the lambs will be less economical gainers than the 

 others and thus raise the cost of production, while 

 the diversity of appearance and character lowers the 

 selling value. The breeder will find enough to 

 occupy him in maintaining and advancing the stand- 

 ard of his flock and breeding out individual defects 

 without at the same time assuming the task of 

 bringing in and fixing the correct type in one part 

 of the flock. 



