SELECTING RAMS.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 693, 23 November 1876, Page 3

SELECTING RAMS.

' On i word on the ram of these days of Liiih feeding, wliich meant early maturity and qirclc returns. Every farmer appreciates a well-bred animal. {Hence, in purchasing 'or hiring a ram for me in his flock the farmer should be p.irticuiar as to his purity of Meseent. Of whatever breed it may jbe, the purer the strain, the more •marked will be the improvement in the •produce. A few ex'ra pounds juidi,'ciously expended in the purchase of a jWell- selected male animal of pure lineage always proves a remunerative investment. Owing to theatre at which they begin to breed, !••*• time* is required to improve a flock than a herd ; in either case it require* great care and judgment, and the exercise of no ordinary abilities, to arrive at even a medium degree of merit. With ordinary farm stocks little difiVul'y is experienced, whilst in tho«e of superior excellence a single bad cross may undo the labour of years. Every breeder should be careful, in selecting a ram, that he does «o from a superior flock to his own. When a flock ha* attained so huh a standard that it becomes difficult to know where to go to for material* to improve it, then in-and-in breeding may be resorted to for a few generations, without producing any deteriorating effects, and animals so bred acquire the power of trans- ! dining to their offspring their type and characteristics ma marked degree, even irhm paired with others of a totally different class. A few years ago, the L-icester flick of Mr Valentine Barford, of Fo«cote, near Towcester. Northamptonshire, presented an example of in nnd-in breeding unparalleled in the United Kingdom. This flock, at the time of Mr Brford's death, numbered upwards of 2<XJ breeding ewes, and a large number ot rams of diffcri nt age«, and for upward* of seventy y«ars had been zealously guarded, no alien blood having been allowed to contaminate <t during all that long peiiod. They were kept entirely in a natural state, and no corn or artificial fo>d of any kind was ever used, and yet a goodly number of rams were sold every year to breeder« in the neighbourhood, and to those from distant counties. The** sheep presented a strong contrast to ih' j modern Leicester of the present day. As mujht be suppo-ed, there whhh remarkable fumily likeuesa and uniformity of charact r. They were long and narrow, and stood rather high on the leg ; the wool was thick, but hhort in the staple and fine, being more of a carding than a combing quality ; the face wm long and white, nose prominent ; there irq» a scarcity of wo >\ on the belly and leg-, altogether they had a si'ong resemblam eto the improved Cheviot. Ihe sys em of feeiiinu hxd. no doubt, to a considi rable extent, had the effi ct of Ntnnnng the growth of tho animals Mr Birford always stocked his land very heavily, and neither used corn «r cake for feeding, the wethers w^uld average 201 b«. per quarter at eighteen months old. — '* The Field "