THE RABOUILLET SHEEP.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3384, 13 January 1920, Page 3

THE RABOUILLET SHEEP.

....——(;-._._ ORIGIN OF THE BREED.

‘ The predominating breed. of shew in parts of the United States is the Ralnbonillet_ It really is the spanish .\'lel'ino, and :1 brief sketch of its origin may be intero-%ting:~ ' In the latter part of the eighte.-nlh century King Louis XVI. of France had a. 1'0y';—1l estate at Rilfllbjlliilct‘ twenty miles from Paris. 1191-; 11,, founded at farm which would ('onlpu.ra: favourably with the exr_)-n-iniental stations of the U.5.A..; he was to '.3ll‘.\\'.' the French farmers what. Wits big: and most. profitlable for tliem. lies. pite all the political coiiditious sinet; that time this farm has conr,inu.3:l¢l_e property of the Go\'el'nlnent, in] its work has been maintained for the benefit of the French fzlrnier. Of .411 the work the greatest and best k]l_f_‘\\']) is that with sheep. Desiring to h'a.v‘«3 the choicest flock in all Europe, Louls XVI. ".ecurc-,1 1:110 consent of the Spanish king to }_-uy what. sheep he wanted from the best, Spanish Cabanas. Commissioning Victor ('—‘:ilbert, reputelcl the best shen.p--bl'ee¢.ler in all France, the .:Ittel- Seleeted a flock of ewes and the necessary rams and Shipped them to Rain. bonillet. While attention was given to fleece, yet size and‘ form were especially requil'.nd, the idea ill mind be ing to select sheep which would furnish :1 Sizeable earcase of meat. as well as produce a good fleece of wool. iCarei_’nl records ‘htive been kept of wights of fleece and car-cases, 01: quantity and character .of feed consumed—in fact, of every c011c.eiv;1l)le~ factor in the- car: an dbreeding of sheep. In the breeding the aim was to keep'a sheep Well balanced as to both wool and mutton. trying to maintain and increase each ‘faetor without enpeilse to the other. Steady im provement was S(‘(3Lll’C‘(l, .'.ln<.l a type of slieep so strongly and distiilctiwrly established that it! has since b-'*‘e:i kinown by the narne of the estate on which it was developed, Rambouillet. G‘rernlanS of the lamled aristocracy lsimilarly 0Sl":1l.)llSllOd flocks of both tSpanish and French extraetion,lnostlly the latter, and they worked toward tthe same end, I; combination of both wool,and mutton, but ever keeping Dmutton érs. important as the wool. and in some cases a litle more so.