FACTS FOR FARMERS. ROMNEY MARSH SHEEP FOR FARMERS.

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 266, 24 January 1874, Page 2

FACTS FOR FARMERS. ROMNEY MARSH SHEEP FOR FARMERS.

At a recent meeting of the Victoria Agricultural Society Mr Wm. Lyell read tlie following paper on long-wool sheep: — 1 purpose to nivn my experience i\f a bteodcr o( long-wool ed sheep, nnd further to show the change that lm* taken place respecting their va'ue in the opinion of the settlers in this co'ony. At one timo it was thought that to cxom the merino with the long-wool was to bring ruin on flock and flockownen. The p'esrnt feeling may be judged when it is known that the long- wool breeda have supplanted the merino sheep over h wide spread district. The Spaniards h»ve a proverb that "where the foot of sheep touches the hnd it. ii tamed to gold " Many settler* will sny Hint it requires the foot of u long-uoolled sheep to do this, for tbey t-ow grow two pounds of nmllon and two of wool, where formerly they produced on the 3a,me pasture only one oi merino in the came apace of t ime. Previous t > 1352 the only flock of lonßwool cheep in Victoria could lv <pm at Donling Forest, the property of my old friend Mr W <J T. Clark*, who made no tecr^t of the fart tiiat his Leicester-merinos weie profitable btyond comparicon with merinos, b,ut he wai deterred from going extensively jntn the Jone-wools through the advice of Ins wool brokers, to the effect that they had only a limitel market for tbat kind of wool. The manufacturers of shoddy being thi-ir oulj cttstomnro, they required the Jong fibre as o binding for their irml material I believed then, find do now, that the English woolbrokern wialied to ditcourngo the production of Jyng wool in 4- uotralif. First, became wo eonlrl «md merino of the qunlity tbey wanted ; nnd, next, the Bradford Qhnmber of Commerce had not com-niencx-il their agitation fora larger production of the lustrous woota to meet thp grpwipg rcquiioments of tho trade, or a belief exi'Ui'd ilmt oucli >vool could not bo grown in Austrnlm. Tho luttcr feeling is now pretty well dispelled, Messrd Ja.'cnnb, Son, and Co, in a report upon my Komney Marsh sheep wool, Bth July, 1872. say. " the intrinsic value of tin* deicription is nboul %<i per lb. in favor of the Port Philip wool. Anain. May 14, 1870, they describe my wool as " Lincoln, deep, good cotnbi Jg " It was, I believe, in 1860 thct a French woolbuier at a Geclong dinner impressed upon his heareri that long-wool *heep would^inthe Western district, be more profitable to keep than mci inos, but long before this, ser-ral editorial articles and letters appeared in tho Argus, advocating a larger proportion of meat and a more profitable sheep, by crossbreeding, and the value qf such sheep win shown by the production of tomo Cotswold merinos. A reference to Mr Clarko's sheop brought tb,e rejoinder that only Dowling Forest could produ.ee suph sheep and that even Mr Clarke bad clear d oif nil or nearly all bis crois-breeds That was true ; but his only reason for doing ■0 nti that tlioy were the most saleable when the diggers wanted mutton, and that they gavo a greater roturn from the hailing vats. In 1858 the first visible inlero&t was taken in long wool 6heep. In that year 17 were exhibited at the PortPlnhp Farmer'i Society's Sliovv, tho Cetswoldi winnine the gold and s lyer m«dals. In 1856 the eight prizes oftVred brought only two cihibit* of butcher's ehpfp, a"(l i» 18p7 my CotsiTolda and u few Tadtnauiau Leicesters were the only rxhibiU. In 1859 feptrate clas*ps wore given to Leicester! qud Cotanold*, nvi'l go v l nhtcp \ncw irnjwrtationi) were

*lto *n, and II priw3 avrardod. In 1800 a great *t»rt w&» nv»(?e, and 58 «hecp were iboßn in the Jong wool il.iss, and J."i prizes woro awarded. The fact that the Port Phillip JTirmer's Society was the only show ground, will serve to aho-.v the apparent apathy in reference Jo long'wool ftbeep in particular, a* w#H ai the implement of ahepp stock generail 7 «t the dqjtes I fmre pi«n. I will now compare the past with tho present oondttion of fllwp farming otj the ecuutline of 7ietona. In 1850 there vcaa not I belmvts, 60 Jpng-wool sheop in flic colony ; in 1873, at a aptcm! aho^i for long- wool jj'if«p <it HsKhsm, Lber» were 12 claaset of pure sheep,' 36 prit '«, and albO two champion and fotjr special prizes, bssidea 16 urijtr^ for cross-bred sheep. In addition, to ahow the incif nsing importance this kind af sheep hare in the estimation of Victorian?, I may mention that in July and August last 905 f»tud ohe?p arrived from England, hating here & probable market value of over £36,000. The whole of the lons?-wool flhcjp in the colony I should tins oeason e3timate in money value at liltie under one million pounds sterling, showing clemly that the Victorjnn farmer.3 hare diqcovered where to look for an animal to realise tho Spanish proverb. I have said this much n; a preface to what I have beau requested to s.iy of my experience of tho Romnry Marsh breed of sheep, which begin in ilua vvaj ;— ln 1862 I had a small flock of C>fswolds, the originals of winch I brought from England in 1855. I had also a number of purr Leicester*, and some orois-breds from both sorts with merinos. All were more or less suffering a.nd dying fioni liver and fool-rot. I then determined to import a Marsh sheep that might be suitable to the swamp land of Western Port— or, as my friend Mr M'Dougal* calls it, fen land. My choice was confined to two b eedsof English sheep, tho Lincoln and the Romney Marsh. I had no personal knowledge of either, but tnv reading led me to suppose that pure Lincolna could not be found. The old breed, like the fens, had been so improved that possibly I could not obtain the kind of animal 1 lequired, since in Kent breedeis bad found that improved Romney Marsh sheep could not «tand their climate. A quotation from Youalt, on the autho ity pf Mr Price, who wrote sixty years ago, settled my choice. It was this: — "The homney Marsh breed of sheep may l c made the most \aluable in the kingdom for rich pasture, as producing the moat meat at the 1 leaat expense, and thus affording the greatest Amount of i profit. lam happy to he able to say that my experience I will give them credit for doing this upon p or pasture. Last year from my ewts I had 152 per cent, of lambs ; nj doubt lev ond a general average. Jn previous years I usod to cut the ram lambs not required for stud purposes, (and only refrained at the 3Uggu;ui<jn of my friend Mr Hudson, an admirer of my sheep.) At from fifteen to eighteen months old the yougg wethers gave each from 701bs to 90lbt of mutton of the best quality. They were fetl on heath and fern rises with salt mara|i ; the same pasture where my tirat sheep were dying out. In the Romney Marsh sheep I have never found fluke or rot ; except from neglect a little incipient foot-rot. Now let me say that my piesent sheep aro equal, if not supeiior, to the imported pio 6 enitors. A writer m the Field newspaper of the 2?nd Jebruary last saya the mutton of the liomuey Ikjaish sheep, for closeness of texture and got>d flavour, is farbefoie any other longwool bleed, and that the hanlines3 of character gives this, breed a special value. But the crosses— or imiioved, as they are called— cannot stand the marsh climate. 1 must say that 1 have tested my stock pretty well, for my piactice has been to purchase high-class animals, and teßt the stiength of their constitutions by seeing how much hardship they could endure— a mistaken policy 1 admit, one I do not rect ninienri, nor in future piopose to follow _ Mr RoVierf M'lJougall, who is a great "»x»c» living authority, bas told us so often and «o well of the va3ue of what he calls natural comfort of our domestic animals, tihat it is truly wonderful that people can be found so stupid *.•* not to see that a few animals fairly treated are more profitable than a larger number b»dly i^ept., besides the gratification of seeing domestic animals in proper condition Let any Australian sheep breeder read the following taken fiom nn essay in the Royal Agricultural Society of England Journal, and then wondei, if he can why an English longwool r.im is worth £300, ond the best Arstivluut of the same kind, only 4.50. Surely cornier, in the way of feed, has much to «.o with the matter -—"Only glass, turnips, and hay were used in the manufacture of the iledmere wool , and mutton." This is written of sb,eep ba.iUy treated. Had Sir Tattoo Sykes lived in this colony, most lilfejy he would have had mysdf aud many others up under " Martin's Act.*' The poor sheep at Sled mere ahould have had two pints of j corn and half a ppund of oil cake a day. I dnre soy that some qf thp.se lately imported have not been stinted. 1 have spoken of the va'ue of the wool, and for purposes of comparison 1 produce samples from England aud my own sheep And here let aie say, that 1 have foupd tb,p weight of fleece given, to them by English waters, even lipon the imported sheep, and stilt less upon th.c cpl« nial gunn The impoited animal hut been probably the beet, or one of the best, of ita sort ; but as like does not always pioduce like, it may be that our stock of animals as impoited, i.id not come pure out of tLe AfV, as has been shown by our worthy president and others. The trouble is to find them pure. I suppose we must take them as they come. K,o doubt — the climate affects the fleece as well as the anwi&l, and I, am the moie inclined to this opinion, as Liind -irom the Inglish stapdord that JRomuey Maish sheep give a fleece nearer to the home weight than either the Leicester or ih* Ootavold, and tU&t either give a fleece more valuable than the merino, with two ciops of wether mutton in same or less tim_e than one from the merino. I should tell .you that in geneial my ew «?8 lamb in Augutt and September, aveiybad tune in Western Poit. The fault I think rests with myself, for I quite a^iee with Mr (^■Fftham, in his tieatise on the ABtialian merino, that to bave early lamb.- you mustj shear the lams early, say in September. A mark at sheaiing, a jace and swing gate will save a deal of fencing, and ha\e the ewes pioperly mated, for I suppose that we i\ill not be able to follow the old stylo for e\ er. \\ ben we see that one shi ep is worth £200, and another only £2, w.e cannot be blind to the f»ct that there is something tlie matter with our management, An English breeder said that he could bi?ed them ef the foim that you could shear them into. M c should try and btced them of the foim that we. wish to" feed thtm into. With me the Romnoy Marsh has suffeied the least of any, judging from the tables given by Piofotsor Wilson and Mr Oamgee. The former makes favourable mention of the ineiino and liomney Marsh cioss,, in England the wocl having the srtmc value per pound a3 pure merino. What was true in 1630 may be true now. Therefore, I may boirow partly from Dray lon's Fleece Book and say : If thy fjiim extends (uhtre rot prevail*) Regard thi? sort and thy sire of lambs select. With re; ard to the wool, I believe that the fleece of tho Romney Alarsh is as valuable as that of any other breed.