THE. . AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



551. 



Tunis Sheep. 



A BREED FOR CROSSING. 



OF late years accounts have appeared 

 from time to time in the American 

 stock journals on the suitability of the 

 Tunis sheep for crossing purposes, and 

 their adaptability to conditions where 

 breeds other than the merino would f ail . In 

 Australia the merino has for such a length 

 of time held sway far above other sheep 

 breeds that the introduction of a foreign 

 type is looked upon with mistrust, and 

 the Australian sheep-breeder is, as a rule, 

 very conservative. He certainly has the 

 right to be so, for the merino has con- 

 tributed the bulk of the foundation on 

 which the present high status of the Com- 

 monwealth has been built. There are, 

 however, places in Australia where the 

 merino does not thrive, but which are 

 suitable for some of the English breeds. 

 After years of trial, the Lincoln, Leicester 

 (both English and Border), Romney 

 Marsh, and Cotswold, belonging to the 

 long-woolled tribe ; and the Shropshire, 

 Southdown, Hampshire, and Oxford 

 Down, of the short-wooUed tribe, have 

 found most favour. All these breeds 

 have been crossed and re-crossed to a 

 large extent, and now the mutton-raiser 

 knows fairly well what will suit his cus- 

 tomers at home and abroad. He is thus 

 loath to try a new breed unless he has 

 sufficient evidence that it is a profitable 

 animal, which at present he has not. The 

 Tunis sheep is a mountain or semi-moun- 

 tain breed, about the size of the Dorset. 

 They have the recommendations that they 

 can withstand the heat of a warm climate, 

 will breed at almost any season, have very 

 early maturing qualities, are active fora- 

 gers, and will consume a great variety of 

 plantsi An authority on these sheep 

 says : — " It is claimed for them that the 

 carcase dresses profitable on the block. 

 The quality of the meat is said to be of 

 the very best. The fat is blended with 

 the lean, rather than laid on externally 

 and internally, whilst the flavour of the 

 meat has been highly praised. When 

 crossed upon the various Down breeds 



they put their stamp upon the progeny, 

 thus showing their great prepotency. The 

 cross upon the merino, pure or graded, is - 

 said to improve mutton qualities." Like' 

 the Dosets, Tunis sheep are prolific. They 

 not only produce many couplets, but in 

 some instances they breed twice a year. 

 The wool is not very dissimilar to that of 

 the Dorset in quantity and quality. They 

 shear an average of about 7^lb. greasy 

 wool. Since they can stand the heat 

 well, they should suit the merino for 

 crossing with, but only for the purpose 

 of producing a marketable mutton. — 

 "Jamaica Journal of Agriculture." 



Laura, the dam of Petrarch, Fraulein, and 

 other good horses, having broken a blood-vessel 

 at exercise, was sold for £25 to a Midhurst 

 miller. She bred him thirteen or fourteen foals, 

 five of which, including the two above named, 

 were good ones. Petrarch was sold to Lord 

 Dupplin for £10,000, and Mr. Stirling Crawfurd 

 paid £3,500 or £4,000 for Fraulein. 



The first horses imported into America wer 

 taken over by Columbus on his second voyage 

 in 1493. Thirty years later forty-two horses 

 were landed in Florida, but they all died soon 

 after their arrival. De Soto, who made an ex- 

 pedition to the New World in 1540-41, left a 

 number of fine Spanish horses behind him when 

 obliged to quit the country after his conquest 

 of Louisiana, and this stock is thought to have 

 formed the foundation of the wild horse of the 

 south-western States. In 1604 a French immi- 

 grant brought to Acadia a number of animals 

 from which the modern Canadian pony is 

 thought to be descended. Horses from Flan- 

 ders were imported into New York in 1G25. 



In a notice of the Rodalla dairy farm, in the 

 New South Wales South Coast .district, the 

 Sydney Stock and Station Journal reports that 

 the Bodalla herd numbers 630 milking cows, con- 

 sisting of 110 Holsteins (a comparatively recent 

 importation from North Germany), 1(30 Ayr- 

 shires, 150 Shorthorns, 130 " grades " and 80 

 Jers ys. The 110 Holsteins yielded last year 

 61,269 galls, of milk, being 554'8 galls, per cow ; 

 the 130 "grades" gave 67,499 galls., bein'^519 22 

 for each cow ; the 150 Shorthorns, 77,168 galls , 

 or 514-46 galls, per head ; the 160 Ayrshires, 

 72 446 galls., or 432-8 galls, each ; and the 8o 

 Jerseys, 28,845 galls, equalling 350 66 galls, each 



