Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1910 — BEST BREEDS FOR MUTTON ANO LAMB. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BEST BREEDS FOR MUTTON ANO LAMB.

Discussing 1 the value of the “Down” breeds and their crosses for the production of mutton and lamb, J. P. Ross says in Farm and Fireside: Tbe breeds we treat of are the Southdowns, Hampshires and Dorsets, the strictly “Down” breeds, so called because of their origin in the general region of the downs or low rolling hills of tbe south of England Of these breeds the best for our purpose is probably the Shropshire. These sheep have taken the firmest hold of any of the mutton breeds in this country and Canada. Tbe high quality of their meat, the amount of high grade wool they will produce—tbe ram’s fleece constantly running to twelve pounds and the ewe’s to eight—their hardiness and ability to thrive in almost any climate and at any altitude. and their good, early and prolific motherhood commend them most highly to the grower of winter and spring lambs as well as of muttou generally. Souihdowns are well represented on this side of the water, though not nearly so numerously as are the Shrops. The Southdown is the smallest of the Down breeds, the rams seldom going over 200 pounds or the ewes over jap. In < <>lor the face and legs are more of a brown than a black. They are credited here with being the hardiest and least subject to disease of any of the Down breeds, but with what truth I cannot say from experience. They are good grazers, good breeders and mothers, but not disposed to breed quite us early as the Shrops. Their meat and wool are both of good quality, but tbe rams rarely fleece over eight or the ewes over six pounds. In districts where they abound the farmer who has a special liking for them will do well to admit his ewes to one or. still better, to two crosses of Dorset or Oxford for the sake of the early breeding tendency, and in the case of the Oxford also for the increase of size and weight Hampshires are. 1 think, hardly as widely distributed as tbe Shrops or Southdowns in this country, though they are very popular in tbe English colonies. They run to great weights and their meat is held in high esteem, but the fact of their wool being often somewhat coarse and small in amount rather works against their popularity. They are prolific, but not early breeders. good milkers and good mothers. The lambs grow very vapidly, but their meat hardly equals in quality that of the other Down lambs. To obtain the

best results in early lambs from a flock of Hampshires one or two crosses with a Dorset ram are desirable. The Dorsets— horned, with white faces—are mostly valued for their tendency to early breeding, and for that reason the use of the rams on other breeds has become very generaL The Dorset ram will Impart this characteristic very surely on'almost any breed, even on scrubs, but it must be remembered that this quality does not become fully developed in the ewes of any other breed until the cross is repeated in the second generation. To obtain this advantage it is not neces sary. therefore, to start up a flock of Dorset ewes: it is not even desirable, because it implies the loss of the black points, and the crossbred ewes are generally the hardiest. The Oxford Downs also have this peculiar faculty, though not so fully developed, and their coarseness makes them less desirable as sires.

SOUTHDOWN PRIZE WINNER.