in forming a New Breed of Sheep. 



221 



districts it is easy to find flocks participating in the two neigh- 

 bouring races. Thus, on the borders of Berry and La Sohjgne 

 one meets with flocks originally sprung from a mixture of the 

 two distinct races that are established in those two provinces. 

 Among these then I chose such animals as seemed least de- 

 fective, approaching, in fact, the nearest to, or rather departing 

 the least from, the form which I wished ultimately to pro- 

 duce. These I united with animals of another mixed breed, 

 picking out the best I could find on the borders of La Beauce 

 and Touraine, which blended the Tourangelle and native 

 Merino blood of those other two districts. From this mixture 

 was obtained an offspring combining the four races of Berry, 

 Sologne, Touraine, and Merino, without decided character, with- 

 out fixity, with little intrinsic merit certainly, but possessing the 

 advantage of being used to our climate and management, and 

 brino^int'- to bear on the new breed to be formed, an influence 

 almost annihilated by the multiplicity of its component elements. 



Now, what happens when one puts such mixed-blood ewes to 

 a pure New-Kent ram? One obtains a lamb containing fifty 

 hundredths of the purest and most ancient English blood, with 

 twelve and a half hundredths of four different French races, which 

 are individually lost in the preponderance of English blood, 

 and disappear almost entirely, leaving the improving type in the 

 ascendant. The influence, in fact, of this type was so decided and 

 so predominant, that all the lambs produced strikingly resembled 

 each other, and even Englishmen took them for animals of their 

 own country. But, what was still more decisive, when these 

 young ewes and rams were put together, they produced lambs 

 closely resembling themselves, without any marked return to the 

 features of the old French races from which the grandmother 

 ewes were derived. Some slight traces only might perhaps be 

 detected here and there by an experienced eye. Even these, how- 

 ever, soon disappeared, such animals as showed them being care- 

 fully weeded out of the breeding flock. This may certainly be 

 called ^'fixing a hreed^'' when it becomes every year more capable 

 of reproducing itself with uniform and marked features. Such 

 was my secret, which, however, has been made no secret at all, 

 but has been declared from the first in my entries at the shows 

 of Poissy and Versailles. Such is the origin of the La Char- 

 moise breed of sheep. 



We have already seen how important it is that you should not 

 infuse into a new l3reed more than fifty per cent, of English blood, 

 if you would preserve the French constitution, Avhich alone suits 

 the circumstances in which they have to pass their lives. The 

 Charmoise breed not exceeding that proportion does retain the 

 hardiness of a pure French race : the lambs are reared as easily 

 as those of any French breed, getting over the summer just as 



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