The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1875-10-21

eF numerous demands upon his time
aud energies. IF ne has any within or
fancy for any particular breed, this
should have its proper weight, for, un-
less his feelings are enlisted. unless he
learns to love his stock and thus make
them love him, he is pretty sure to stop
short of this top round of the ladder TO
success.
The compact, round-bodied, black
jacketed Merino has few attractions
for the eyes Of the mutton sheep fancier,
who counts no animal sheep that fails
to kick the beam at two hundred pounds
and upward. To put choice Merinos
into The hands of such breeder is to
insure certain loss to the man and speedy
deterioration to the stock. IF mans
heart is not in the work, his pocket had
best not be in it either. The prelimina-
ries settled when he has made up his
mind that he has the right kind of stock
in the right kind of place, he should put
his standard high, resolved to have al
ways the best stock, and strive coutin-
ually to make it better by liberal feeding
and judicious crosses.
Improvement is the more speedily and
eheaply attained through the size of
young stock Uss only the best rams.
Better pay seemingly high prices for
good animals, than to breed from
second rate stock, though they can be
had for song. What are termed dear
prices, at which We see choice animals
Of their kind-horses, cattle, sheep and
swine-daily changing hands, are often
er than otherwise not the result of fcti-
tious estimates. Extraordinarily fine an
finals are worth extraordinarily big
prices, and no one realizes this more
fOrciblY or acts upon it with more nerve
and promptness, than The man who has
his own stock. One essential to success
ful breeding is a persistent endeavor to
sustain the standard that has been fixed
upon by the breeder as bis ideal of the
perfect animal.
While the sheep will be found to CON
form more readily than any other ami
NAL except perhaps the dog, to certain
well understood physiological laws, the
attainment of ell the desired character
istics and their Incorporation into the
life and constitution, 80 as to insure
transmission with the desired force and
certainty, is labor Involving not alone
Indignant and taste, but patience as we'll
He who expects to accomplish in q year
what others have only completed in a
lifetime of labor, is pretty surely doom
ed to gather the bitter fruit of disappoint
ment, and the chances are largely in ia
vor of peeuniary loss as wen. 1t requir-
ed oyer fifty y ears of labor and care and
study to bring the nine-pound fleece
rams imported by Humphreys and 9th
ers, up to the twenty-five and thirty
pound shearers of the present day.
The highest types of the Cotswold
and Southdown are the result of al ex
penditure of time and money and study
equal to that bestowed upon the Merinc
in the United States during the last hal
century. Such facts as these afford
small encouragement for those young
men who see visions, and those older
! ones who dream dreams of speedy for
tune and an assured fame by the estab
lishment of an intermediate breed o.
sheep-one that wi II combine in a single
animal the good qualities of all the
breeds and the weak points of none
Any of the established types will i'm
prove what is known as our common ma
tive sheep sufficiently to justify the pay
ment of fair price for a choice ram
| Grades from these focks of common
sheep, bred toward the long-wooIs, the
Down or the Merinos, will be found pro
| ftable stock to the average farmer.
Care should be had to breed all the
time in the same direction-that is, al
ways using the best rams Of their KIM
| within reach, having due regard to pru
dence in making the purchases. Tn
/ first crops will generally show q create
3 change from the standard of the coarse
t wooded mother than subsequent ones
: though an occasional cropping out of he
Q less desirable characteristics may be ez
: pected, but should. not discourage the Ell
r fort at improvement, as persistent cross
| ing by pure bred rams will bring its re
!. ward in a slightly flock of grades that cal
be depended upon to reproduce thei
characteristics with reasonable certain
ty-A. IL Garland