Management of Skeep. 



25 



as to what breed or description of animals should be propagated 

 to produce the largest return. Having decided upon the variety 

 of sheep, care should be taken to select the best of that particular 

 breed, as in every breed much choice is open to decision ; this 

 principle should be strictly observed in the selection of females, 

 but more particularly in the choice of males, by no means being 

 influenced by over-fed animals, unless they are strictly in con- 

 formity with the rules laid down for establishing the flock. In 

 the production of male animals much depends upon the prin- 

 ciple laid down ; I have practised every plan by way of experi- 

 ment, but have found none equal to what is termed " breeding 

 in the line." With '^crossing'' and breeding '-'in and in" I 

 have been most lamentably disappointed, there being no depend- 

 ence on the first, and no size to be procured in the latter ; even in 

 "breeding in the line," much depends upon the union or know- 

 ledge of matching the male and female^ particularly if selected 

 from different families, even of the same race, which have been 

 for some time raised in other localities, and consequently in- 

 fluenced by climate, soil, situation, and treatment. When using 

 rams of the same flock, they should by no means be put together 

 nearer than a third remove in the same line of blood ; I have, by 

 repeated experiments, experienced, by the nearer affinities of 

 blood, the most decided disappointment, but have raised some 

 first-rate animals by putting the third removes together, when 

 attention has been previously paid to the sort required. 



From close observation I have found the quality and quantity 

 of wool to be governed by the quality or description of flesh upon 

 the animal ; hence certain wool and certain mutton go together : 

 further, so often as the wool is observed to change upon the back 

 or otherwise of the sheep, so does the quality of flesh change, 

 commencing at the exact division of the varieties of wool — thus 

 showing the importance of selecting those animals that possess the 

 best description of wool and mutton. Now these carry but one 

 sort of wool upon their frames, and that of a mellow, moderately 

 long, thick, bunchy character, under which is found the mellow 

 flesh peculiar to first-rate animals, which flesh is found to spread 

 or expand itself more rapidly than any other, but with a sufficient 

 degree of firmness. Under short fine wool is found extra firm or 

 hard flesh, which does not expand or grow in proportion. With 

 thin-set, strong wool, we find the animal to have a white objec- 

 tionable head, with loose or coarse - grained flesh, wanting in 

 quality in due proportion to the wool it bears ; and the animal is 

 never, in consequence, known to spread wide, but represents its 

 degree of fatness along: the back. In the selection of male 

 animals it is even better to choose a strong animal from a well- 

 bred flock of the same family than to step out of "the line " to 



