Longwooled Sheep.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 21, 3 December 1874, Page 3

Longwooled Sheep.

- ' ' • • -» . ..The paper lately read at Sydney by Mr W. P. Gordon, on « The principles that should guide breeders and graziers of sheep for long wool and mutton," has a practical tone that will secure it respectful perusal, whilst many who possess a fair measure of experience of these sheep and their requirements will yield a cordial assent to Mr Gordon's propositions. Success in the management of sheep depends largely, as he . says, on u putting the right sheep in the right place." The faculty of doing this, we ven ture to observe, is not given to all men • many errors have already been made in putting long-woolled sheep upon country from which they J will have to retire, in some cases until it shall have been better prepared for their reception and support, in others unconditionally and permanently. It is necessary before deciding on the class of sheep to be kept, to consider whether the country to be stocked is capable of . maintaining* the particular sheep preferred. Thus, amongst the first questions to be setded are whether the pro-g-eny will equal in size the progenitors, and whether the wool of the future sheep will possess those characteristics which give value to that of the sheep of to-day. Assuming that, in a great many instances the size of carcase will not be kept up, the question arises whether the breed, when thoroughly acclimatised, will possess, upon the' whole, characteristics which will render it more valuable- than the one it is in- ! tended to displace. We think that men who have watched the breeding of long*woolled sheep in Victoria during the last dozen years cannot have failed to note a decline in size in the majority of these sheep. Some of the purest and most highly bred Leicesters are beginning also to indicate a weakening of the constitution, but that may be regarded as a natural consequence of the close breeding to which they have been subjected here, and which is never practised by any of the long-woolled breeders in England. Let us not be misunderstood on this point; nothing in the way of cross-breeding is necessary to keep up the stamina of a pure flock, but the principal breeders of each long-woolled breed are accustomed to exchange blood occasionally, with a view to maintain constitutional vigour ■ witness the reports of the' ram sales that occur through, the months of August and September in the midland, the eastern, and the western counties. Secretly, many of the owners of Lincoln and Leicester stud flocks have crossed these breeds with a view to improve ; them • and a,s they were only cousins ; originally, no great violence has been done. The C<stswold breeders, too (those owing the white-faced sheep), cannot deny the soft impeachment of having employed Leicester blood to tone clown the raw angularities of the old pure breed, and impart squareness and compactness to the frame, although with these has come a delicacy of constitution which has compelled early resort to pure Cotswold blood. Even some of the Romney Marsh flocks have of late years lost a portion of the proverbial hardiness of that breed through infusions of Leicester blood. The modern Lincoln, like the Cotswold, owes its compactness to the Leicester cross, so that virtually the whole of the longwoolled breeds of England, which are regarded as of common orign, are again becoming related. There are some minor classification of the long-woolled sheep which have escaped the Leicester influence; the grey-faced Cotswolds are still pure, and some of the middle-wools have remained free from admixture as far as memory serves. But, as a rule, neither the Lincolns, the Cotswolds, nor even the Leicesters themselves, are any longer the distinct breeds they were fifty years ago, and the time would seem to be approaching when the separation, at least between Lincolns and Leicesters, will have to be given up. The two breeds, or rather strains, have been so intimately mixed that to find a half dozen pens of Leicesters wearing no Lincoln characteristics, or ah equal number of Lincolns evincing no obligation to Leicester blood, would be a very difficult task. Nor is there cause for shame in the existence of this mutual obligation. If the old Lincoln blood has imparted strength to the constitution of the Leicesters, enfeebled through a long course of the closest of close breeding, and if the modern Leicesters have in turn given quality to the amalgamation (call the resulting breed by what name we may), the greater the triumph and the more creditable to its authors. We have suggested the question whether the wool of the long-woolled sheep ot future will equal in value that of the sheep of to-day. It is gratifying to. see a great promise of the wool of the 1 two principsl. breeds excelling in fineness and in lustre the woof of those breeds in England. Lincolns of the third and fourth Australian generation are yielding wool as long as that of their ancestors, and at the same time finer and more lustrous. The Australian soil appears to develope the latter characteristic in an eminent degree, and it; would not be surprising if our: long-wools ultimately attained as high repute in the English market as that of our merinos has long since done. — * Australasian.' \