GREY FACE SHEEP.

Southland Times, Issue 1221, 11 March 1870, Page 3

GREY FACE SHEEP.

: The following letter by Mr Every Macjean, of Auckland, is published in the New Zealand Herald of the 25th ult. :— Many of our neighbors are partial to crossbred sheep, and are not averse to breeding from crossrbred rams. It becomes, the duty of ..stud-breeders— in fact, it is also their interest — to - produce rams which will please the public. , In England, for mutton, grey face or

Southdown crosses are spreading amaz insrly ;in fact, leading butchers will bm no other, and they are now paying fo Southdowns, Shrops, &c, and their congeners, a much higher price per poun<^ than for any other variety of mutton How different it is in Auckland : no one here seems to have a tooth for good meat ! A saddle of a five year old . Southdown wether is worth in the West End of London, £1 ; in Auckland ifc would not, does not, make more per pound than the haunch of a goat. However, it may not be always so. Auckland is not all New Zealand, and the new Meat Preserving' Company at Oamaru may think differently, and may wish for sheep with grey stockings. For many years I have been breeding a flock crossed between Southdown and Leicester, always going to pure blood forrams from one or other of these families to keep up the type I had in my mind as desirable to perpetuate. The ewes are now, in my opiuion, pretty even. * As long ago as 1858, the Auckland Agricultural Society at that time gave special prizes for sheep best adapted for the province. I won the premiums- for ewes and rams in this clas* with this breed of sheep, but I have not since exhibited them, confining myself with tolerable success to competing at agricultural exhibitions with pure blood. Persons unaccustomed to sheep breeding, or without a special object, can scarcely realise the amount of trouble and anxiety attending the keeping of different breeds of sheep near each other, and the irreparable injury that is sometimes caused by their mixing ; they would not conceive what patience and perseverance is necessary, and what even temper is required, to secure success under such circumstances. \ My brother, who looks at our Leicesters with very stroDg spectacles, and who is as much a sheep enthusiast in his way as lam myself, is quite horrified sometimes at the proximity of the " 'downs." Many a poor erratic night-walker of my despised 'downs has he caused ruthlessly to be murdered, but I do not deny the justice of the sentence. Often and often has a young spark of a ram of a dark night, during the weary sleep of the honest and faithful shepherd, stolen into the byre of the maiden Leicester ewes, and the consequence has been, not only the comparative uselessness of a lamb begotten under sufh circumstances, but, unfortunately, all the succeeding lambs from such ewes, even if proper banns and ceremony are used, are quite useless for stud purposes, for the taint and color of the marauder — the villain who first had access to them — will crop out in all the succeeding family. Knowing this, a the ewes have to be destroyed, however pure and high their pedigree. The former part of my letter is simply a prelude to what I am desirous to say. I am now expecting from England greyfaced rams suitable for these " Howick--1 down ewes." They are from a very i fashionable and valuable flock, bred hy Mr Aylmer, -of Dereham Abbey, in Norfolk — perhaps the largest ram-breeder in the United Kingdom. I have noticed, in reading accounts of his annual sales for years past, that the greyest legs and faces commanded the highest prices in his own neighborhood. They are used for breeding, to the please fastidiousness of butchers, who are careful to keep the skin on at their stalls, to show the color of the legs. I have received in a letter from England a sample of wool from one of the sheep lam expecting. It is said to be cut from a lamb about six months old ; it is beautifully fine and soft, and measures eleven inches in length. I must confess I am greatly surprised at this statement, and can hardly conceive such a rapid <Towth ; but when we consider that the lambing season in England is in March, and the date of the letter October, I am led to suppose the information correct. 1- can oiily say I have never noticed more than an inch average per month, which I have frequently had for twelve or fifteen months. I carry this English sample in my pocket to show any one. Mr Aylmer writes in the following terms : — " The long-woolled ram lambs you bought of me have been bred by our family more than sixty years, and are called the "West Durham Long-woolled Flock. Ewes and rams from this flock have been sold to the Emperor of all the Russias, the Emperor of the French, the Pasha of Egypt, Prussia, Germany, Holland, Sweden, and to all the principal breeders of long-woolled sheep in Lincolnshire (^Gloucestershire, the best Cotswold breeders), Buckinghamshire, Devonshire, Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk, and all the principal breeders in Norfolk, and have taken more than 600 prizes at the Royal and other agricultural shows. The average weight of my fleeces are: ram hoggets, 12Ss to IBlbs ; shearling rams, 12Bs to 14fesj ewes, 9fts to llSs.— Hugh Aylmer." However prejudiced I may be against taking rams out of a washed flock for breeding purposes, I fully believe in a case of this sort, they would kick well with pure merinos ; and I shall endeavor to carry out my scheme of producing sheep possessing great activity, hardihood, and aptitude to fatten, covered with a heavy fleece of valuable wool, and, above all, that unrivalled marbled mutton, which will be required at the manufactory at Oamaru and elsewhere.