SHEEP BREEDING.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 13, Issue 657, 18 February 1869, Page 2

SHEEP BREEDING.

The following is an extract from j letter from Mr N. P, Bayly, addresse to the Sydney Mail. “It is notorious that for some year the system of breeding sheep for numbers has been almostgenerally followed quite regardless of the quality, tk tact that like produces like, is in n way regarded, and very many squatters prefer breeding from any mongrel bred rams they can produce from thei own flocks, or buy cheap iu preferenct to purchasing a few good rams ; tl consequences are now manifest scarcely a brokers report reaches Syd ney that does not convey the fact tha most of our colonial wool is sadly de fective, and unmistakeably shows tha no correct system of breeding has beei kept up, Stockmasters seem to forge that it costs as much to keep, one thou sand indifferent sheep as it would on thousand of the best. I thorough! believe that two-thirds of the sheep i the colony are absolute r abb's!) and will not pay the expense of tbei management. If stockmasters coul be induced to cull their flocks to oni third of their present number and pi all the rubbish into the pot, they wouli tind it greatly to their advantage, do not speak without experience in thi matter; although my runs are exteu sive, and would carry 25,000 shea I never keep more than 10,000, at probably with one or two exception I make more out of ray 10,000 sliet than any person iu the colony maki out of 50,000. I may be wrong, bi such is my impression. For nearly lifetime I have adhered to the systei of culling, and never keep any shei that I consider in any way defeclh or objectionable. I can with mui satisfaction point to my wool sales 1 the last 25 years, they have alwaj maintained a uniform price and gene ally at the top of the market. Th year with the miserable prices we hat had to put up with, my clip of bales, averaged upwards of 31JJ y iff all round, and two-thirds of it we sold in the most depressed time of tl sales. I mention these facts to sho that when I tender advice, it is mere! to induce others to pursue the syste so successfully carried out by myseii good wool and plenty of it ought toJ the study of all sheepowners; but tl) can only be obtained by close cullkl and careful selection of breeding ewe taking special care only to put amot them the best rams obtainable.

introduction of good rams not only gifl good wool and plenty of it, but in very short time they will double 0 treble the value of the flocks that ha* partaken of the change. There is i question that 10,000 good sheep a 1 considerably more valuable than 50,$ indifferent ones, therefore my urgtf advice is, put the boiling pots to wd as soon as possible, or else in a ft years those who possess the most shee will be the first into the Insole Court,”