SHEEP BREEDING.

Evening Star, Issue 3040, 15 November 1872, Page 4

SHEEP BREEDING.

The following letter, written by Mr Every Maplean, of Auckland-perhaps the most successful breeder of Leicester sheep in the Colony—is taken from the Southern Gross. The information it contains will be both interesting and valuable to a large class of our readers : My dear sir,—la our discussion yesterday you suggested what would be the probable ellect of putting Lincoln rams on _ our Leicester ewes, and argued from a Middle Island point of view, and as the owner of 40,000 sheep to bs bred in such a manner for wool. I will admit that such process will add 21b per fleece on the wool of th<* first cross at Is 6d per lb., amounting to 100,000 shillings ; but you will agree with me tho experiment could not be continued with like advantage. In my ease such a step would be ruinous to the character of our flock for stud purposes ; we should introduce iietprogencousness that would take ten generations to expel. Only last week a friend, I suppose a native of Gloucestershire (but a Cambridge man, and who should on that account have had more sense), saddled an argument of a similar kind on me. Why don’t you, Mr M aclean, put Costwold rams on your Leicester ewes? What magnificent sheep you would grow to be sure, what splendid lleeces, &c, 1 know very well what the effect would be. I could breed and exhibit specimens of smh cross magnificent in wool and contour, that by a lie and misrepresentation I could, with picked ones, win all the Leicester prizes. 1 know 1 could at ram sales sell specimens of them at topping prices at the expense of my veracity ; but whom w M uld I dip* to s|.iow my Hock to? Where should I bide'my failures, the ragtag and bobtail, of such miserable lumpy'shouldered crosses? For many years I have been pestered with fellows offering me advice in this direction, I cannot attend a ram sale without some fcol or other saying, “ Look here, Maclean —here is a splendid pen j you should try some of these rams. Look, here is size and wool!” Well, L look at a lot of crossbred brutes, that the Almighty only knows how they were bred (the owner bus not the slighedt conception), no two sheep in the pen alike, every sheep dissimilar in wool and sheep, probably most of them having different kinds of wool on the same sheep —a coat, waistcoat, and trousers of different texture ? Very soon that indefatigable auctioneer A. B. comes round and sells thorn, and does his best for his clients, ‘‘Here,” he says, “is a tine strong sheep ; how much ? Here is a compact, hardy sheep, &c. Hero, is a good long-wool one ; good deal of Lincoln here ; line cross,” &c, A good word for all, and the buyers have their choice; and, after a little fumbling and plenty of muddle, everybody is pleased. A buyer goes borne and tells bis son he has bought a capital ram for _ 1/2—good wool, hairy scrotum, good constitution. By-aud-by the lambs come. Hero, father, is a party lamb ; keep that one for a ram. Father says Yes ; but there is an ugly one ; what a hairy head he has, aud how he lops his cars. And

look at that one—what a rough coat, what queer hairy thigs. This man sees this before his eyes, but does not know will not learn that a puro-bred ram would bring different lambs from these. He will go to market with the bandage off his eyes and buy a cheap strong ram again, and I wish him joy. Mr Robert Graham’s Hock stood very high here, and they were valuable sheep for general purposes, but not fit for stud sheep, that is to breed rams from. 1 mention this now as the Hock is broken up and sold. He admitted the correctness of my remarks in this directum in our last conversation before lie left, I have had the same advice given me South as here. [ was strongly recommended on Wellington wharf by a sheepbreeder, who was looking at my Leicestertups, to cross my • eicesters with Romney Marsh sheep—get rams, I suppose, to put on my Leicester ewes. 1 am a patient man, and flesh and blood lias its limits, but what prevented my throwing that fellow off the wharf into the sea? i could have done it easily ! Cross my Leicester with Eomuey Marsh, a sheep found nowhere in England off a miserable little swamp on the coast of Kent! Cross my Leicester ewes with Lincolns (however valuable) scarcely ever bred out of their own county 1 'he Leicester is found in every county in England, and ' eicestor blood, the great improver in eve y parish from the Shetland Isles to Penzance. The Leicester, and the Leicester type, is the sheep throughout all Ireland, where the LTieoln never had a footing, and is almost unknown. No heterogeneity far me ; we breed puro-bred rams for Hockowners to cross from. I believe in and practice, homogeneity ; we procure our rams from the best blood in England, and by sclection from our own flock, and our worstlooking rams will bring as good stock as the bestrlooking specimens The object of this letter is a suggestion that I wish to make public ; the idea is as simple as that of Columbus and tire egg, yet, however great its simplicity, I know from experiments it is a great physiological fact, and if I had the scope to carry out the idea in this Province I would fill New Zealand with merino rams, to the exclusion of almost all others. The great desire in this Colony is to increase the length of staple and weight of wool on the merino sheep, and to increase the quantity and fatness of merino mutton for meat-pre-serving. This is my method : Take eighty superior-picked merino maiden ewes, not full-grown ; call them No. 1. Tup them with a specimen Leicester ram from my flock. Destroy the Jambs Tup the same ewes (No. 1) with the very best merino ram, a picked specimen. Destroy the rdin lambs. Keep the ewes (call them No. 2), say they number 40, before they are full-grown, tup these 40 ewes (No. 'j) with a picked specimen ram from my Leicester flock. Destroy the lambs, lup the 40 ewes, called No. 2, with the very best merino ram; the progeny must be the nucleus of a stud flock, by selection. The blood of the Leicester in the veins of the growing maiden will tincture the after progeny, the lambs got by the pure merino ram, and will increase and improve the carcase, and the weight and length ef staple of the wool, the sheep retaining their pure merino character. Let the Hon. , Canterbury, take care that I am not robbed of my suggestion without acknowledgment, and let the Southern Cross, for the honour of an Auckland sheepbreeder, be sure to inquire five years hence where the pure merino wool nine inches in length came from.—l am, &c., Every Macleax.

P. 3.—1 hope I have not trod on any one’s toes in the above letter. 1 believe I have not said anything against Lincoln sheep. I admit they were a valuable breed of sheep, especially in rich pastures.