SHEEP BREEDING.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume 1, Issue 12, 21 December 1872, Page 2 (Supplement)

SHEEP BREEDING.

The following letter, written by Mr. Every Maclean, of Auckland, to a friend in the Middle Island, contains much suggestive matter: — “My dear sir, —Tn our discussion yesterday you suggested what would be the probable effect of putting Lincoln rams on our Leicester ewes, and argued from a Middle Island point of view, and as the owner of 4,000 shetp to be bred in such a manner for w r ool, I will admit that such process will add 21b per fleece on the wool of the first cross at Is. Gd. per lb, amounting to 100,000 shillings ; but you will agrefi with me the experiment could not be continued with like advantage. In my case such a step would be ruinous to the character of our flock for stud purposes: we should introduceaheterogeneousness 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 argue ment of a similar kind on me. Why don’t you, Mr. Maclean, put Cotswold rams on your Leicester ewes ? What magnificient sheep you would grow to

be sure, what splendid fleeces, &c. I know very well what the effect would be. I could breed and exhibit specimens of such cross magnificent in wool and contour, that by a lie and misrepresentation I could, with picked ones, win all the Leicester prizes. I know I could at ram sales sell specimens of them at topping prices at the expense of my veracity ; but whom would. I dare to show my flock to? Where should I hide 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 fool or other saying, ’ Look here, Maclean—here is a splendid pen ; you should try some of these rams. Look, here is size and wool I’ Well, f look at a lot of crossbred brutes, that the Almighty only knows how they were bred (the owner has not the slightest conception), no two sheep in the pen alike, every shoe]) dissimilar in wool and shape, probably most of them having different kinds of wool on the same sheep—a coat, waistcoat, and trousers of different texture I Very soon that indefatigable auctioneer A.B. comes round and sells them, and does his best for his clients. ‘ Here,’ he says, ‘ is a fine strong sheep ; how much ? Here is a compact, hardy sheep, &c. Here is a good long-wool one; good deal of Lincoln here ; fine 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 home and tells his son he has bought a capital ram for £2— good wool, hairy scrotum, good constitution. By-and-bve the lambs come. Here, father, is a purty lamb; keep that one for a ram. Father says Yes ; but there is an ugly one: what a hairy head he has, and lops his ears. And look at that one —w hat a rough coat, what queer hairy thighs. This man sees this before his eyes, but does not know—will not learn—that a pure-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 flock stood very high here, and they were valuable sheep for general purposes, but not fit for stud sheep, that is to breed rams from. I mention this now as the flock is broken up, and sold. He admitted the correctness of my remarks n this direction in our last conversaition before he left. I have had the same advice given me South as here. I was stroligly recommended on Wellington wharf, by a sheep-breeder, who was looking at my Leicester tups, to cross my Leicesters with Romney Marsh sheep —get rams, I suppose, to put on my Leicester ewes. I am a patient man, aiid flesh and blood has its limits, but what prevented my throwing that fellowoff the wharf into the sea? I could have done it easily ' Cross my Leicesters with Romney 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 ? The Leices-

ter is found in every county in England, and Leicester blood, the great improver in every parish from the Shetland Isles to Penzance. The Leicester, and the Leicester type, is the sheep throughout all Ireland, where the Lincoln never had a footing, and is almost unknown. No heterogeneity for me; we breed pure-bred rams for flock-owners to cross from. I believe in, and practice, homogeneity ; we procure our rams from the best blood in England, and by selection from our own flock, and our worstlooking rams will bring as good stock as the best-looking 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 the egg, yet, however great its simplicity, I know from experimeuts it is a great physiological fact, and it 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-preserving. This is my method : Take 80 superiorpicked morin > maiden ev7es, not fullgrown ; call them No. 1. Tup them witbkt specimen Leicester ram 1 rom my flock. Destroy the lambs. Tup the same ewes (No. 1) with the very best merino ram, a picked specimen. Destroy the ram lambs, Keep the ewes (call them No. 2) say they number 40, before they arc full-grown, tup those 40 ewes (No. 2) with a picked specimen ram from my Leicester flock. Destroy the lambs. 'Tup the 40 ewes, cal led 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 of 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 acknowledgement, and let the Southern Cross, for the honor of an Auckland sheep-breeder, be sure to enquire five years hence where the pure merino wool nine inches in length came from. —I am, &c., Every Maclean.

P.S. —I hope I have not trod on any one’s tocsin the above letter. I. believe I have not said anything against Lincoln sheep. I admit they are a valuable breed of sheep, especially in rich pasture. —Southern Cross.