1875.] 
amekxcan agriculturist 
377 
Cross-Bred Sheep. 
The cross-bred races of sheep are the most popu¬ 
lar breeds with those who look to the wool and 
mutton for their profit. The pure-bred sheep, so- 
called, or those which go back to a long distant 
ancestry for their 
origin, are chiefly 
bred not for their 
value in wool and 
mutton, but for the 
purposes of crossing 
upon other races for 
the production of a 
really profitable mar¬ 
ket sheep. The pure 
South Down, the 
Cotswold, and espe¬ 
cially the Leicester, 
are found to be less 
profitable sheep for 
the farmer than the 
Oxford, the Hamp¬ 
shire, and the Shrop¬ 
shire sheep. These 
last are cross - bred 
sheep, and amongst 
English farmers, go 
by the significant 
name of the “rent 
payers.” In Germany 
and France the pure 
breeds have been 
found less profitable 
than cross - breeds, 
and we are now mak¬ 
ing the same discovery in this country. There is a 
popular need for a sheep which produces a large 
carcass of choice mutton, along with a fleece of 
wool which bears as high a price per pound as that 
of any of the pure races, and which can be brought 
to early maturity and made to weigh heavily at 
less expenditure than the pure-bred sheep. At the 
same time we need a sheep of hardy constitution, 
which can stand the rough usage of the farm bet¬ 
ter than the high-bred races. We know of no 
farmer, unless he has been most favorably situated, 
who has been able to keep a flock of pure-bred 
sheep of the kinds mentioned up to their original 
standard. It does not pay a farmer to keep the 
pure breeds for the production of mutton at (3 to 8 
cents a pound. But 
he can produce half- 
bred sheep by the 
use of pure - bred 
rams, whose mutton 
will be worth the 
highest price of the 
market, from ewes 
whose mutton would 
not bring more than 
4 cents a pound. 
Thus the business of 
breeding pure - bred 
theep to supply rams 
to farmers for the 
purpose of improv¬ 
ing their flocks has 
reached to great pro¬ 
portions, and must 
still increase. But 
the English bred 
sheep are not exactly 
what we want. We 
want some native 
breeds, which shall 
not need to go 
through a course of 
acclimatation, nor to 
be periodically re-in- 
foiced by new blood 
imported for the purpose, thus making us dependent 
on foreign breeders for our stock. As regards the 
mutton and long-wool sheep, we need now to go 
through just such a course as has been long pursued 
with the American Merino, and which has resulted 
in the production of the best fine-wool sheep, at 
least for our purpose, in the world. A competent 
judge of Merinos in Australia recently stated that an 
American Merino ram, imported into that country, 
could not be excelled in any other country in the 
world. We need to arrive at the same result as re¬ 
gards breeds for mutton and combing wool. Some 
of our breeders are making praiseworthy efforts to 
HAMPSHIRE DOWN SHEEP 
this end. We mentioned, a short time ago, the at¬ 
tempt made by Mr. Crozier to establish an Ameri¬ 
can cross-bred sheep, and Mr. Joseph Harris, of 
Rochester, exhibited at the last meeting of the New 
York Wool Growers’ Association a sheep produced 
by a cross of the Cotswold and Merino, which 
promises to become a valuable race of sheep, both 
for mutton and wool. For the purpose of showing 
what has been done in the way of crossing else¬ 
where, and with what success it has been done, we 
have reproduced the portraits of two cross-bred 
sheep, taken from photographs from two excellent 
foreign publications, the London Agricultural 
Gazette, and the Paris Journal d'agriculture pratique. 
The first of these is a portrait of a Hampshire Down 
CROSS BETWEEN LEICESTER AND FRENCH MERINO SHEEP. 
sheep, which is a cross of the South Down ram 
upon a white-faced, long-homed, coarse, inferior 
sheep, which has existed for a long period in the 
county of Hampshire in England. The prepotent 
influence of the pure-bred South Down has got rid of 
the horns, and has given a black face, while the car¬ 
cass and fleece have been so improved by judicious 
inter-breeding, as to greatly surpass those of the im¬ 
proved parent. These cross-bred sheep were found 
by Mr. Lawes in his elaborate experiments in feed¬ 
ing sheep to make more mutton from a given weight 
of food than the South Down, which is so superior a 
sheep to the old race which furnished the other 
parent, that it has 
entirely supplanted 
this latter and caused 
it to disappear alto¬ 
gether from its old 
home. The Hamp¬ 
shire sheep has been 
such a successful 
cross, that it has been 
made the basis of an¬ 
other cross-breed,the 
Oxfordshire sheep, 
which has sprung 
from the Hampshires 
and the Cotswolds, 
and is now a close 
rival of both its par¬ 
ents. The sheep, 
whose portrait we 
give, was bred by Mr. 
Rigg, of Hampshire, 
England, and has 
taken several prizes 
as a two - year old 
ram. The Hampshire 
Downs mature quick¬ 
ly, the lambs weigh 
100 lbs. at a year 
old, and the mature 
sheep at two years 
weigh alive 180 lbs., yielding a mutton that is not 
overloaded with fat, and has a good proportion of 
juicy, well-flavored, lean meat. The fleece averages 
about 7 pounds of wool, suitable for combing. Our 
second illustration is a portrait of a cross between 
the English Leicester and the French Merino. It 
is a somewhat unusual cross, but has resulted very 
successfully. Itwas made by Mons. M. E. Pluchet, 
of Trappes, France, who has now a flock of 500 of 
these sheep. The flock was commenced in 1839 
by crossing Rambouillet Merino ewes with a 
pure Leicester ram. It was only after many at¬ 
tempts that an entirely successful result was reach¬ 
ed. The half-blood ewes being unsatisfactory, 
were crossed with rams of quarter Leicester blood. 
This cross produced 
a much better sheep 
than either of the 
parents; but after 
some years of inter¬ 
breeding it was not 
found sufficiently 
Drofitable, and the 
ewes were crossed 
with a pure Leicester 
ram, and the produce 
of this cross were 
crossed with rams of 
the previous cross, or 
of three-eighths Lei¬ 
cester blood. This 
produced a 6heep 
with 8i sixteenths of 
Leicester and 7i six¬ 
teenths of Merino 
blood. This sheep— 
of which the illustra¬ 
tion is a portrait— 
yielded at 24 months 
old, and on the same 
pasture, as much 
meat (but of superior 
quality and greater 
market value) as the 
large French Merino 
produced at 36 months ; the fleece, being much 
finer and softer, but not so long as the Leicester, 
weighed 91 lbs., and sold for more than the Merino 
wool. After many years of inter-breeding, this 
sheep continues to improve in quality by close at¬ 
tention to selection of parents, and is very profitable. 
