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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 35, 27 February 1862, Page 6 (Supplement)

A Prolific Bueed of SnEEP. —It was stated in a paper read at a meeting of the Society of Arts in London on the Bth February last, that Chinese sheep had been introduced into England by Mr. Rutherford Alcock, viccconsul at Shanghae, who in 1851, had shipped several of them as a present to Prince Albert. The Prince ; in 1855, presented three ewes to the London Zoological Society. Lord Ducie also had some ; but on the death of this lamented nobleman, the sheep were lost or dispersed. In the London Zoological Gardens the increase of lambs was so great that it was considered a nuisance. One owe had five lambs, another four, and a third three ewes. Kbt having accommodation, and not wishing to be overun with Chinese sheep, which were not very attractive to visitors, the keepers actually used the lambs as fresh food for lions and tigers, till the breed was extinct, not without remembrance, however, for Mr. Barlctt, the superintendent, in 1857, wrote to the etfect that the sheep bred twice a-ycar and the lambs were easily reared by hand and were perfectly hardy. The wool though coarse, was of a useful kind, and, in the opinion of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce, was then worth Is. per ib. The Americans acted differently and more sensibly. The introducer of them into the United States (Captain Theodore Smith), who began with three sheep, in 185-1, in eighteen months had an increase of (71) seventy-four, one of the sheep having had twelve lambs in fifteen months. Ho states the sheep as largo and handsome, and the mutton of superior delicacy. Mr. Pell, who purchased some of these sheep, states that he has as much has nine pounds of wool of each and that so greatly were they appreciated, that he was selling them at live hundred dollars each to various friends. The lecturer recommended this breed as a means of rapidly stocking the Australian, Rew Zealand and African Colonics, and when a largo flock was obtained to cross with the merino to improve the wool. They also seem to be quite a cottager’s sheep, as being used, to hand-feeding and confinement they therefore would baar tethering on roadsides ; and from the number of lambs no doubt yield much milk, which (the lambs being sold) might enter into household use. They would bo a useful substitute for the goat, as less liabio to wander more valuable in flesh, and producing a large quantity of wool. —jifnrJc Lane Express. Pat’s Df.sckiption of a Fiddle.— lt was the shape of a turkey and the size of a goose. He turned it over on its back and rubbed its belly with a stick and och ! St. Patrick! how it did squalc! A North Carolina editor acknowledging the receipt of a bottle of brandy forty years old says : “ This brandy is so very old Hi at we very much fear that it cannot live much longer.