Farm Notes.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4385, 13 March 1909, Page 4

Farm Notes.

BREEDING OF STOCK Mspißm'j- \ ■’■•' ' J "' ■■ £he-sfibircHOßft

(By Lord Palworth, in “ The Breeders Gazette.”) Having boon 'asked to give Borne thoughts on the subject of Shot them Weeding, present and future, I with much diffidence agreed to do so. I have no spi'cial claim to be deemed an authority upon thff subject, as I. have been .too much occupied with other duties and pursuits to be much at shows and sales. On the other hand, I have been a stock breeder from my earliest days, and havo ever felt the deepest interest in the subject, and more or less made it study.. All life has a peculiar) charmjrfor me, and apart altogether coaitner<rial aspect, I have found interest in the mysteries of breeding, with its results. Ltke mai<y hiidtHWJbreederviwho continues over a long period, one lives' b sey^briaiiott'tin ;jsiicce/ss. • s Fashions change■ a 11 d ( hoW flieir own for a time, but all my observation, both with p y owfl and :thO many valuab e flocks (ind herds in Great Britain, confirms me in the opinion that steady perseverance in rearing and maintaining true types proves best in the long run. I have se6n mhfiy coM# to the frqgt.in yard or sale-ring for;' a .time, vet'aftfei* awhile the old blood revives and is found essential, and resumps its place, At this ihbihetit ! the good bid BateS blood is 1 hn instance of this.' “ s . When asked tb drite on the presept my mipd naturally reverted to that which was most present to* me when I first took an interest in stock breeding. I suppose I was inoculated byia cert aid yenpratJle bid shepher’d, whpSe snowy-white hair, rurfdy completion* ' and genial, kindly ways, l have npyer faded frond toy mind.. He was shepherd tb toy grandfather and father, -Who felt it a duty to inculcate in the budding laird the value of the Border Leicester sheep. The flock hpd its origin in the days of Bakewell, and the opinions, the methods and aims of that great designer and student were early impressed on my mind. My eye and my hand were duly instructed and impressed with the type, ti e quality and character. From Leicester sheep to Shorthorns was a,step later ih life, but the ideal in both breeds was, and is identical. It is now about 40 years since my first 5 Shorthorn came to Mertoun, and with more or less of success and failure I have persevered in what is a most interesting study and per'suit. Now a septuagenarian, I can only give some observations as desired : in hopes of their contributing a trifle towards the breeding of that cosmopolitan animal, the Shorthorn In looking back even 40 years one needs to remember that even that period does not, take one to the bed-rock of the days of Bakewell, Colling, and their desciples and followers. What the world, with its teeming population, owes to those early discoverers and pioneers is incalculable. When one’s mind roams beyond the cosy homesteads of Great Britain, with its fertile pastures, its green fields, of root crops, or its huge hay-stacks, to the vast plains of Argentina, or Texas, or South Africa, or the wood-clad plains of Australia find New Zealand, one’s mind begins to realise how potent an influence emanated from the rural homes where foese quiet men evolved the breeds which have dominated the welfare and wealth of multitudes.. A visit to any of the great sheepyards is in itself a revelatiou, but even these asre less so than the quiet pastures aria humble homes where the process of moulding the plastic foims placed in our hands by the beneficent Creator is' bting carried on steadily by generation after generation, amidst times of stress and times of success nlike. 'lt js time the great world recognised that these quiet workers are as true benefactors to the world, as are the great men in the of science or art. One sometimes wonders how it is that all that appertains to the destruction of life in war receives more attention and help than sucli beneficial labours as these.