222 Method of ohtaining immediate Fixity of Type 



easily : neither then nor later do they suffer more than our native 

 breeds from heat or from drought. 



The mixed-blood mothers had been formed from breeds in 

 general small, and possessing the usual qualities of small breeds, 

 delicacy of shape, smallness of the head and the bony structure, 

 temperance as to food. The Merinos alone had not these valuable 

 qualities, but they entered in the proportion of 25 per cent, only 

 into the mothers, and consequently of 12 J per cent, only into the 

 offspring. Their disadvantage, too, in these respects was com- 

 pensated by their influence on the fleece. 



I may here remark that, in founding a breed, it is far better to 

 choose ewes from small breeds, with the qualities already men- 

 tioned, than from breeds that are strongly timbered, bony, coarse, 

 greedy, like those of northern and western France, which I tried 

 myself, to my own heavy loss. Accordingly as fine or coarse 

 ev\^es are used, so in proportion do the offspring show that coarse 

 or fine character, difficult to describe for a writer, but easy to 

 perceive for a connoisseur. 



Besides, it is an admitted fact, that a sheep affording 112 lbs. 

 of meat is more expensive to feed than two sheep, each of 56 

 lbs. Luckily, on this head the interest of our butchers, the taste 

 of our consumers, and the profit of our farmers are all in unison. 

 The weight generally preferred in France for sheep is 56 lbs. 

 At this point it is easy to stop the Charmoise breed. I say stop 

 them, because weight is one of the things which man can most 

 readily increase or diminish in any breed ; in fact, as the size of 

 the being to be fashioned depends upon the ram, it will be re- 

 produced similar to the sire, if no obstinate resistance of another 

 fixed breed be opposed to it. It will then develop itself more or 

 less in proportion to the food received by the lamb. It is not 

 difficult, by increase of food, to double, or even more than double, 

 the result. By feeding differently lambs born from similar 

 parents, we have brought some to the dead weight of 75 lbs. at 

 14 months, while others gave only 30 lbs. of meat at the same age. 

 The weight of 56 lbs. may be taken as the mean between these 

 two extremes. 



In putting my small mixed-blood ewes, that weighed alive not 

 above 56 lbs., to heavy New-Kent rams which weighed often 

 225 lbs., one apprehension alarmed me — the fear, I mean, of 

 losing ewes which had cost so much trouble, when the time came 

 for their giving birth to the large offspring one naturally expected. 

 But no such danger arose ; and the reason seems to me clear. 

 Whatever be the size of the ram, the germ develops itself only in 

 proportion to the nourishment it receives. Now, while it remains 

 in the womb of the small ewe it obtains but little support ; con- 

 sequently the lambs remained small, and the births took place 

 without difficulty. In 2000 labours we had but one death that was 



