The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-08 00:00:00

'I HE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST P, 1853.

FO./](LNG NEW BREEDS OF SHEEP.

!Ervin the Et an notes, )

•
The attempt to create new breeds of sheep by eroEs-
inir i. not new in 11. is country. Some years ago s-
able Warts were mad, to cot tarn • sheep wsth the Merit
fleece arid a goo I Ergiisli enc...., but wit:. instep. 11:11:1,1':
so. .1:., late Ear.l We Vern had some errs s.treel she en
between the Le icester and Merino, which he believed to have
stained a permanent and uniform character, yet they have
never extended beyond the late owner's park. Now the object
seems to be to form a gray-faced sheep with what Mr.
Posey tulle middic-wad ;' such as Mr. Druce's cross-
!trod s'erep we r. Lirred to last week. Since that
notice was written we have bad the orportunity—
at the Gloucester ni^oting of cassn!nlag not only Mr.
Deuce's sheep, but those of several o'her breeders
won are working in the same direction. That ex-
amination has strougly confirmed our previous im-
pression that little success is lU.rly to ark nd any of the at-
tempts to establish permanent cross breeds. Indeed tl.c
attempt implies som^ defect in the accurate obsetvation e.f
facts which must he open to all breeders. Mr. Brace exhi-
bited several rams and two pens ot ewes of his mixed breed,
which would no twain be thought in a fairer market good
and useful tense-b:.d she, ; though they p:-ssess a cer-
tain uniformity of chem.-ter, it did not appear to us to be
sw.di as would be much sought after by sheep headers.
Except that their appearance betokened good management,
they differed little from many of the mongrel grey-laced
sheep we see in house cmnties, which make very gated
mi.tton, but which no one would dream of adopting as oried-
ing stark. In the lands of skilful men elan sort of uni-
formity of character and form nany b 3 kept up for a time in
such • cross bred flock, but all experience is against the ex-
pectation of thereby obtaining any real fishy of type.
.M the Gloucester 'how, there we re en the climes of
" Shropshire." two rams—a yearling and a two-year-old—
exhadted by Mr. John Gillett, of Brae N :Mon, Oxford-
shire, which were the produce of crosses between the Cots-
wold and Southelown. These animals Ind the appearance
of the first-cruse, which usually produces a very useful and
s &able sheep. But th., owner inft.nned us that they were
bred from cross-bred animals, and that he had persevere
for sixteen years in br -ling from crosses without any new
is:h.:ion of original blo el. One of these sheep was wit!,
great justice " highly commended," but still we should very
touch doubt whether many sheep of such ferns and character
could be obtaiewd fr,ra a cress-bred flock. They had all
tie appearance of being a first cross, possessing en a c in-
siderable degree the marked characteristics of both races—
form and size from the Cotswold with ties grey legs and face
of the Down.
. _

There were some Cotswold 'limp shown ut Gloucester
which scent far more liktiy to gratify the testa for grey.
faced sheep without producing
,races of mongrel,, and the
deterioration of the lure hres.. s which must evitably arise
franc c ffu.'s to create permanent crosses.
These were pure Cotswolds with grey legs :Ind faces,
bred by Mr. Smith, of Bibery, near k'airfurd, Gloucester.
'hire. fie has obtained the grey colour by steadily selecting
from the pure Cotswold flocks of Gloucestershire, the sheep
so distinguished, and which indeed most other breeders
have dratted from their stock. The result has heist a lot of
trey-fuced Cotswolds of rod form and wool, though some•
what less in sire than the best flocks of that breed.

Such ure the rtstu.il results of our own attempts at cross-
breeding. We do not refer to what are frequently culled
crosses, is Couwohts Led Leicesters, kicesters and Lin-
colas, or Cotswolds and Lincoln', because, thou All each 01
these Israeli hare in irked differences, they are in the mail.
•o nearly identie..l thet the produce of soy such intermix-
ture' can scarcely be deemed crosses.