240 LIVE-STOCK JUDGING 



equally high degrees of excellence, from the same individual. 

 As a rule, the sheep with the best mutton carcass shears a 

 comparatively poor fleece, while the sheep that grows the 

 greatest amount of finest wool is not wholly acceptable 

 to the butcher, dressing out, with excessive waste, a light, 

 ill-shaped carcass of low quahty mutton. Hence, there 

 are two distinct types of sheep, one grown for its carcass, 

 in whose case the wool constitutes a by-product, and the 

 other, kept primarily for its fleece and having a butcher 

 value analogous to that of the dairy cow. Sheep of the 

 former type are in the majority, however, even their 

 fleeces supplying the bulk of the wool that is marketed. 

 It is not profitable under present conditions to maintain 

 flocks for their fleeces only, as used to be extensively 

 practiced. 



Mutton Sheep 



The mutton wether is as close an analogy for the beef 

 steer, already described, as it is possible for a sheep to be. 

 Mutton and beef may be regarded as contemporaneous 

 before the meat eaters of the world. 



249. Production. — Nearly all of the mutton dressed 

 is consumed fresh, therefore primeness in the carcass is 

 especially desirable. On account of their lesser size, 

 mutton carcasses are most commonly handled entire by 

 the wholesaler, neither spUt into sides nor quartered, as 

 in the case of beef. Preference for lamb is shown in 

 this country almost to the exclusion of a sheep carcass 

 of any other age. From two thirds to three fourths of all 

 the sheep slaughtered here are lambs, while the Briton 

 appreciates, as well, the flesh of a prime yearling wether. 

 Lamb can be distinguished from mutton by the relative 

 sizes of the carcasses, by the softer consistence of both 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



