648 



SHEEP 



The size of the Romney Marsh sheep gives it a second-class 

 rating among the large breeds, the mature rams weighing about 

 225 to 250 pounds and the ewes from 175 to 200 pounds. A 

 New Zealand standard adopted in 19 16 assigned 240 pounds as 

 a very acceptable weight for the ram. 



The quality of Romney Marsh mutton is superior to that of the 

 other long wools, being less coarse and more comparable with the 



heavier Down breeds, 

 - such as the Hampshire 

 and Oxford. The fat 

 is more evenly distrib- 

 uted and the bone is 

 finer than in the case of 

 Lincoln or Cotswold. 

 The Romney Marsh 

 as a feeder ranks very 

 high on its native 

 marshes, where it has 

 held popular favor for 

 a long period of time. 

 Here the use of grain 

 is the exception and 

 not the rule. In Ar- 

 gentina it has proved a 

 very excellent feeder 

 on the low-lying mead- 

 ows of that country, and 

 in New Zealand it has 

 been received with special favor where low lands are common. At the 

 Smithfield Club Show between 1895 and 1912, quoting Henry and 

 Morrison, 65 yearling wethers, averaging six hundred and six days 

 old, showed an average weight of 267 pounds, with a daily gain 

 of .44 pound, while 73 lambs weighing 160 pounds at two hundred 

 and fifty days old made an average gain of .64 pound a day. 



The crossbred Romney Marsh sheep, with Merino blood on the 

 dam's side, have proved very satisfactory in Australia. Hawkes- 

 worth states 1 that few crosses give equal results and none better, 

 1 Australian Sheep and Wool, 1906. 



Fig. 306. A Romney Marsh ram, champion in 191 5 

 at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco. 

 Exhibited by R. Matthews, Featherston, New Zea- 

 land. From photograph, by courtesy of the American 

 Sheep Breeder 



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