Breeding for Shape of Sheep.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 213, 30 July 1887, Page 8

Breeding for Shape of Sheep.

In-and-in breeding is dangerous if practiced carelessly. But in his creation of the improved Leicester, Bakewell set an example to those who wish to improve their flocks without going outside of them, or, at least without going outside of the bieod. fie made a special study of each individual amtrul, and wt?<s careful to select only those that were without weak points. The great danger of in-and-in breeding consist^ in the liability of family weaknesses being in both dam and sire, and in being reproduced in the offspring in an intensified form. If both dam and sire are perfect — absolutely perfect animals — there can be no danger in in and-in breeding. But in the vast majority of cases tuch animala cannot be found, and in the very large majority of cases there are hidden weaknesses, and they produce, or are liable to produce, Home of tho disagreeablo results which are often seen in such cases. Tho breeder can begin by selecting hia best ewe, best in size at)d symmetrical development. But he must not, of course, expect to realise desired Jesuits at once, lie must do just as Bakewell did, persist in breeding up, and keep breeding up. If there are defects in the breeders, couple to breed out such defects. By pursuing that course Bakewell made an astonishing chango in the Leicester, a chango that was so great that his improved sheep was like a new breed, and many really supposed that he had produced such results only by crossing.