SHEEP FAKING QUESTION IN ENGLAND.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1099, 11 April 1911, Page 8

SHEEP FAKING QUESTION IN ENGLAND.

KOMNEY ASSOCIATION MOVED,

The trimming of Kent sheep is a matter upon whicn Ills opinion of breeders will be solicited at the annual meeting of the Kent or Romney .Marsh Sheep Breeders' Association (says the "Farmer and Stockbreeder," London). Wc did not think that the Kent wool'lends itself to this method of treatment, adds the journal, but that is a matter which breeders themselves will require to settle.

"I HAVE BEEN 'HAD.' " In the course of a letter to the "Farmer and Stockbreeder," London an English breeder says:—"l mean never again to buy another coloured .sheen, because I have been 'had' and 'had' well. On September 12, 1909. I gave a gocd price for what I thought was a tiselul lamb, and, as from one of the leading Hampshire Doivn breeders, took for granted was a genuine animal, and in simplicity thought the colouring was simply there to make them look 'pretty,' but to my dis-gnst found afterwards, when the faking was worn off, a big.black patch on the animal's neck. Now, 1 ask any rightthinking man, Was not that fraud? Was I nor swindled as much as a man would bo ivlio bought a painted horse? Yet in the one case the seller would lie prosecuted, and in the other nothing said, and he does it year after year, and thinks hedoes lio wrong."

"FEELING IS VERY STRONG." Mr. A. J. Hickman, of Egerton, Kent, writing in the same issue of the' same paper, says:—"Some of your correspondents seem much perturbed because several pens of Kent or Romney Marsh sheep wero shown at Smithfield with their fleeces trimmed hard. They may $et their minds at rest, as a resolution dealing with the matter is on the agenda, for discussion at tho annual mc-cting to bo hold next month. There is not much doubt that the practice will be stopped, as feeling amongst breeders is very strong oil the matter, and rightly so. ' "When the first Kents were shown trimmed hayd, I said that the originator of the practice was one of tho greatest enemies that tho breed had, for if his example were allowed for any.length of time it. would certainly turn a good longwool breed into an inferior shortwool breed, and for two reasons it seemed a fatal policy'.to pursue.. One reason is that the fleece of a Kent does not adapt itself to cutting out properly, so that wo would have...to . attempt to breed sheep with fleeces that were adaptable, which in tho caso of Kents experience shows would mean dense, fine, fluffy fleeces of short staple and light weight, grown on a sheep (if weak constitution. The other reason is that if rains are trimmed hard it does not givo the foreign buyer an opportunity to see what he is getting, and if he finds in the course of time that he has paid about 100 guineas, with heavy travelling expenses, on a ram with a 'tippy' fleece, vrhicb is his pet aversion, the home breeders will probably find.fhat"'they-have lost one customer, if not several, for their best sheep.

"From the outset it.seemed to me to be a.foolishly reckless experiment to make, foolish because, like so many other socalled improvements, it only gave the originator a momentary advantage' whilst his Competitors were'learning his methods, and if successful, imitating them, as has been done; and feckless, because for the sake of this momentary advantage, a policy was being initiated > which might easily have mined the breed if persisted in."