570 FIXITY OF TYPE IN THE BREED OF SHEEP. 
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 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 fourteen 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 nourish- 
ment it receives. Now, while it remains in the womb of the 
small ewe it obtains but little support ; consequently the 
lambs remained small, and the births took place without 
difficulty. In 2000 labours we had but one death that was 
occasioned by 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 greatest hope that 
they would retain the excellences of their English fathers ; 
and this hope w T as not disappointed. The young animals 
as they grew up preserved their beauty of form, maintained 
their condition w ithout extraordinary food, and did not suffer 
from weaning. The ew r e-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 
