FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   >>  
or other long wooled sheep. They have all signally failed. The forms, characteristics and qualities of breeds so unlike seem to be incompatible with one another. A cross of the Merino buck and Leicester ewe gives progeny which is of more rapid growth than the Merino alone, and is hardier than the Leicester. It is a good cross for the butchers' use, but not to be perpetuated. Improvement in the Merino should be sought by skillful selection and pairing the parents in view of their relative fitness to one another. The LEICESTER, or more properly the New Leicester, is the breed which Bakewell established, and is repeatedly referred to in the preceding pages. It has quite superseded the old breed of this name. His aim was to produce sheep which would give the greatest amount of meat in the shortest time on a given amount of food, and for early maturity and disposition to fatten, it still ranks among the highest. The objections to the breed for New England are, that they are not hardy enough for the climate, and require richer pastures and more abundant food than most farmers can supply. Its chief value in such locations is for crossing upon ordinary sheep for lambs and mutton. The COTSWOLDS derive their name from a low range of hills in Gloucestershire. These have long been noted for the numbers and excellence of the sheep there maintained, and are so called from Cote, a sheepfold, and Would, a naked hill. An old writer says:--"In these woulds they feed in great numbers flocks of sheep, long necked and square of bulk and bone, by reason (as is commonly thought) of the weally and hilly situation of their pastures, whose wool, being most fine and soft, is held in passing great account amongst all nations." Since his time, however, great changes have passed both upon the sheep and the district they inhabit. The improved Cotswolds are among the largest British breeds, long wooled, prolific, good nurses, and of early maturity. More robust, and less liable to disease than the Leicesters, of fine symmetry and carrying great weight and light offal, they are among the most popular of large mutton sheep. The SOUTH DOWN is an ancient British breed, taking its name from a chalky range of hills in Sussex and other counties in England about sixty miles in length, known as the South Downs, by the side of which is a tract of land of ordinary fertility and well calculated for sheep walks, and on which probably more than a millio
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   >>  



Top keywords:

Leicester

 

Merino

 

numbers

 
British
 
England
 

maturity

 
ordinary
 

amount

 

mutton

 

pastures


wooled
 

breeds

 

situation

 

passed

 

account

 
nations
 

passing

 

commonly

 

writer

 
sheepfold

woulds

 
reason
 

district

 

thought

 

square

 

flocks

 

necked

 
weally
 

improved

 

length


counties

 

taking

 

chalky

 

Sussex

 

calculated

 

millio

 

fertility

 

ancient

 

robust

 

liable


nurses

 

prolific

 

called

 

Cotswolds

 

largest

 

disease

 
Leicesters
 

popular

 

symmetry

 

carrying