in forming a Neio Breed of Sheep. 



223 



occasioned bj the immoderate size of the lamb. It was curious to 

 see such small offspring engendered by such huge sires. But these 

 little creatures, if well fed, soon began to grow rapidly, and it 

 was not uncommon to see ewes sucked by lambs larger than 

 themselves. 



From the first dropping of our lambs, the strongly-marked 

 English character gave us the strongest hope that they would 

 retain the excellences of the English fathers ; and this hope was 

 not disappointed. The young animals as they grew up preserved 

 their beauty of form, maintained their condition without extra- 

 ordinary food, and did not suffer from weaning. The ewe-lambs 

 were carefully preserved, a few ram-lambs selected, and the rest 

 castrated. The good condition of these tegs at the end of the first 

 autumn induced us to fatten them. These young things fattened 

 just like old sheep of French breeds, and at the end of winter 

 yielded 56 to 65 lbs. of meat^ with 11 to 13 lbs. of tallow. 



The next year the same cross was tried with the same success. 



The third year was still more interesting. Our first ewe-lambs, 

 at the age of 20 months, had been put to the rams which had been 

 saved. The offspring was most equal in quality, though proceed- 

 ing from parents which were a first cross ; indeed they were more 

 level in appearance than the offspring of some native flocks. 



From that time now for some years there has been at La Char- 

 moise a double set of lambs ; one set from the New Kent rams 

 and the mixed-blood ewes, another from rams and ewes the result 

 of that cross. 



A remarkable circumstance continues to this very year — I 

 mean the perfect resemblance of the two sets of lambs obtained 

 by the two different methods. I have often divided them into 

 lots, and then found it impossible, even by careful examina- 

 tion, to distinguish one set of lambs from the other. This fact 

 is most important — it proves that the breed is established. It 

 only remains, in order to attain the utmost fixity and perfection, 

 that we select carefully the rams and the breeding ewes. This 

 is what will be henceforth done. At first we kept all the ewe- 

 lambs, in order to reach the amount of 500 breeding ewes, the 

 limit of our establishment. We have now the power of selection, 

 in order to keep up that number ; and we have great encourage- 

 ment, in the prizes* already won, still further to improve this 

 breed by careful selection. 



Note. — It was in the first number of this Journal the late 

 Lord Spencer stated, he had observed that the worse bred the 

 female is, the more likely is the offspring to resemble a well- 



* It is stated that the La Charmoise breed have taken prizes whenever they 

 have been shown at Versailles or Poissy. 



