TO BREEDERS OF LONG-WOOLLED SHEEP.

Temuka Leader, Issue 928, 16 March 1882, Page 3

TO BREEDERS OF LONG-WOOLLED SHEEP.

By Old Practical. As the season is fast approaching for breeders selecting their stud rams, and auctioneers in Timaru have been fully satisfied by the long and continued success of some of the southern stud breeders, the time has now arrived for South Canterbury breeders, to turn their attention a little nearer home for a selection of their stud sheep. If any proof of this is rerequired we would direct our readers’ attention not only to show results, but also to the recent sales of our local sheep at the market of the Hawkes Bay Ram Fair, Mr Russell in Lincolns being first, and the Binder Flock also coming ia for a good share of support, while in Leiceaters and Romney it was at the top of the list. We hear also of a recent shipment from the same flock to the Chathams, made by four flock owners, including Leiceaters, Lmcolns, and Romneys, two of the same buyers having had stud rams from the same flock for the last 13 years. Those gentlemen for the last two years have received the highest price obtained at the London sales for wool sent from the Islands, This fact alone should go very far in support of attempting to establish a Ram Fair in South Canterbury. If we have as good at home, and'even better, why should buyers go farther and fare worse. If the supply be equal to the demand and breeders submit them at fair prices we see no reason why the home sheep should not be preferred,being reared on high downs, with no pampering, free from foot-rot, combining both wool and breeding of the very highest type. Therefore we should look forward to the coming Ram Fair as a fair trial of thh branch of farming. We observe the farmer does not go to Christchurch if he wants a plough, nor does he go there for his mutton or beef,for ho saves carriage of both himself and the goods, and gets a better article, but the old proverb crops up, “ A prophet has no honor in his own country and amongst his awn kith and kin.” But as we have said, if stud breeders decide to run the risk of a trial and they are not supported by the farmers then we think they have good reason to seek pastures new where they can meet with better support, and where, it is shown they have given every satisfaction, as those rams after having been used in Canterbury as stud flock rams for two seasons as three shear stud Rams can bring £SO each. These facts tell for themselves that there are other breeders m other provinces who know the worth of such pearls when cast before them. We understand the DinderFarm flock has just received a fresh stimulant by way of t choice English Leicester ram from Mr G. Russell’s Otipua flock which combines strains of breeding on the dam side of A. Torr E«qs. sheep, Alesby Manor, and on the sire side that of Mr Geo. Turns, Southampton. This rara is to be mated with a recent shipment of ewes selected by the late Mr Parker, Cambridge, Auckland, from the flock of Mr Huchiuson of Oatrick, Yorkshire, who is by far the most fashionable breeder of English Laicesters of the present day as shown by his success during the last ten years. With these fresh additions of good blood it is fair to anticipate the flock should with a fair amount of attention be able to command an amount of support at the hands of breeders of cross-bred sheep. It has come to be a pretty well established fact that the true foundation of all crosses must be begun and continued with the pure high bred English Leicester for at least three first strains when a Leicester Lincoln may safely be introduced, but on no account a direct Lincoln, for while you may and will get more wool, you not only get it of a much less value per lb, but you get every third sheep of another kind and class, totally different in shape, make and a less aptitude to fatten and with a kind of short thick stump hair where the forelook should be. Such a sheep, were he a ram would transmit it through his

get, and be it remembered that with such crossing at the first, stays every fifth ewe so bred, may, and are very often of such a type or class of wool bearing all along the ribs, tlrg' 8 and skirts. There will be no such failings in cross-breds raised on the former foundation provided the rams bo well and true descended English Lei; cester. There are Border Leicestera and other Border Leicesters, the former are grand to look at if heads, ribs, and general appearance go for anything. These may and do take the butcher and farmers eye, but for laying a true rich typo, of high class cross-bred sheep, they are as much to be despised and more than a first class rich Lincoln ram, from tins fact that five of their get out of every six will be free from any wool »t all underneath between the fore legs, the whole of the breast being covered with short stiff white hair not wool, as is the case with the other Leicester. We observe this in some of the first prize sheep at all our leading shows. Too much attention cannot be paid to that fact. The ground work of this great mistake has been too much, or too near a run back to the Cheviot ewe from whom they are really descended. I may be told ty some cannie breeder who has come out as such in New Zealand, this is not the case, but he who reads may learn if he will. We have seen a few in the show ground in New Zealand free from most of those, yea all of them, but those are very rare exceptions and a ram of such a class when mated with ewes of the like class the worth of such a sheep cannot be cold. For if he gets one ewe combining all his own good points it is a very rare thing if ihe two don’t produce like, in a very stricking manner and thus, by very keen observation, in time the owner becomes possessed of a family of such. In a few years, if he should not be led away to take one of those counterfeits 1 have spoken of, for I cannot find a more truer name for them, it is a a work of generations to become possessed of, but it can, and has been done, but it is no uncommon thing for them to produce at the fifth, ninth, and twelfth generation a complete break away from all parent likeness and should this not be caught sight of in time the downward tendency is so rapid that none but skilled hands can retrace the step and thereby work into the same groove, again. But suppose him to be unaware of what brought about such a state of things, how is he likely to be able to correct such a mistake if he posses not the means at hand to do so. Will he be a wise man if he permits this to go on when he sees in his neighbors possession the remedy, but from some such narrow mindness as this, he says, “ Oh, if I go to him it will get abroad I bought a ram, or a bull, or an entire from such a man who never imports; while at the same time he is fully aware of the thing he wants.” To auch a man I say he is not worth' the nam» of a breeder, because I hold that the same rule of classing and mating applies to all stock alike. I heard men in this province say they would not have this beast and that horse and yonder ram. Why, because they knew to do so would be to admit their ignorance how to do such a thing, and yet if another possesses it, it would be theirs at any cost, so breeders beware of such jealousy and act like old Practical.