210 



THE RAMBOUILLET 



cent. They are also good in maternal instinct and fair in yield of 

 milk. At birth the lambs are strong and large, averaging aboiLt 

 10 pounds. If well fed they grow rapidly, and few if any of the 

 mutton breeds produce lambs that increase in weight more rapidly 

 after they are four or five months old. 



Eambouillets, like the other fine-wool breeds, stay close together 

 when on the open range, and of course this trait helps to make them 

 popular in the West. Buit at present they are more popular in our 



Fig. 144. — Rambouillet ram, Big Chief, bred by F. S. King Bros. Company, Laramie, 

 Wyoming, and sold at auction, Salt Lake City, August, 1917, for S1300. This elephantine 

 specimen of the breed weighed 375 pounds and walked with ease, showing that he was 

 in no wise fatted to overdone condition. 



range regions than the other fine-wool breeds, due doubtless to their 

 superior size, greater prolificacy, and mutton qualities equal to the 

 Delaine and C-type American Merino. When crossed with rams of 

 the mutton breeds, the ewes produce excellent market lambs 

 (Fig. 144). 



Distribution. — Eambouillets are still kept in considerable num- 

 bers in France and Germany. Of both the older and newer countries 

 the United States is their stronghold, but they have attained promi- 

 nence in the Argentine, and South Africa is trying them out now. 



