SYSTEM OF BREEDING SHEEP.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 164, 20 March 1869, Page 6

SYSTEM OF BREEDING SHEEP.

Mr. N. P. Baylv thus writes to the Sydney Morning Herald :— “It is notorious that for some years past the system of breeding sheep for numbers has been almost generally followed, quite regardless of the quality. The fact that like produces like is in no way regarded, and very many squatters prefer breeding from any mongrel bred rams they can produce from their own flocks, or buy cheap, in preference to purchasing a few good rams. The consequences are now manifest: scarcely a broker’s report reaches Sydney that does not convey the fact that most ot our colonial wool is sadly defective, and unmistakably shows that no correct system of breeding has been kept up. Stockmasters seem to forget that it costs as much to keep one thousand indifferent sheep as it would one thousand of the best. I thoroughly believe that two-thirds of the sheep in the colony are absolute rubbish, and will not pay the expense of their management. If stock-masters could be induced to cull their flocks to oue-thlrd of their present number, and put all the rubbish into the pot, they would find it greatly to their advantage. Ido not speak without experience in the matter; although my runs are extensive, and would carry 25,000 sheep, I never keep more than 10,000, and probably, with one or two exceptions, I make more out of my 10,000 sheep than persons in the colony makes out of 50,000./ I may be wrong, but such is my, impression. For nearly a life-time I have ’'adhered to the system of culling,fand njgver keep any sheep that I consider in atty way defective or objectionable. I. I cap, with much satisfaction, point to py vrOol sales for the last twentyfive years; they have always maintained a rice, and generally at the top of the umjrket. 1 his year, with the miserable prices we have had to put up with, my clip&of 109 bales averaged upwards of 3 IJd. nfer lb., all round, and two-thirds of it was/sold in the most depressed time of the sales. I mention these facts to show that when I tender advice it is merely to induce others to pursue the system so successfully carried out by myself. Good wool and plenty of it ought to be the study of sbeepowners; but this can only be obtained by close culling, and careful selection of breeding ewes, taking special care only to put among them the best rams obtainable. The introduction of good rams not only gives good wool and plenty of it, but in a very short time they will double or treble the value of the flocks that have partaken of the change. There is no question that 10,000 sheep are considerably more valuable than 50,000 indifferent ones; therefore my urgent advice is, put the boiling-pots to work as soon as possible, or else in a few years those who possess the most sheep will be the first into the Insolvent Court.”