Why collies are top dogs
QUESTION Border collies are fantastic sheep dogs. Do farmers herd their flocks with any other breeds?
The herding instinct is present to various degrees in many dog breeds.
This modified version of the killing instinct of wolves has been toned down through selective breeding.
Border collies retain the circling and gathering instinct so vital in hunting wolf packs, but refrain from going in and making the final kill.
When this quick, intelligent and skilful breed is trained properly, it can perform remarkable feats, as famously displayed in the classic BBC TV series One Man And his Dog.
eric halsall, the late one-time presenter of the show, summed up the working supremacy of the border collie when he called it ‘the wisest dog in the world’.
Other breeds with the herding instinct include the Old english sheepdog. Rising to prominence in the late 1800s, the breed is thought to have originated in a bearded collie crossed with a Russian owtchar.
Rather than doing the fine work of the border collie, they specialised as drovers — working dogs that moved herds long distances.
The bearded collie was developed in Scotland to herd sheep and cattle in any weather or terrain. They are said to descend from six Polish lowland sheepdogs brought to Scotland in the early 16th century by a Polish merchant.
The bearded collie is an excellent herding dog. More lightweight than the Old english sheepdog, it is agile and quick-witted and has many of the attributes of the border collie. There are 600 registered with the Working Bearded Collie Society.
Our Antipodean cousins have developed a couple of excellent sheepdog breeds.
The huntaway is a large, black-and-tan, strongly built breed used for general sheep-herding tasks in New Zealand, from where it originates.
It may not have the finesse of a border collie, or be able to do some of the more intricate shepherding tasks, but if you need a dog to gather a big hill flock and push those sheep to wherever you want them to go, then the huntaway is an excellent dog. It is also popular with Welsh hill farmers. The Australian sheepdog is the kelpie, made famous in the Red Dog film. The dog was bred by Australian settlers to drive livestock across wide and treacherous terrain and it is reputedly a descendant of the wild dingo.
On the Continent, the classic working dog is the German shepherd or alsatian, which was originally bred to herd sheep.
Another popular herder is the Belgian Malinois, which is similar in stature to the German shepherd, but with a short, mahogany coat and black markings.
These intelligent and athletic breeds also work as police and protection dogs, as well as being family pets.
Janine Coleman, Llandrindod Wells, Radnorshire.
QUESTION What invasive plant species bother the Japanese?
JAPAN was historically an isolationist country that avoided the influx of alien species of flora and fauna.
That changed during the rapid postwar economic expansion which saw a wide host of plant and animal invaders from the West.
In the Sixties, the traditional erosion protection techniques using slowgrowing Japanese lawn grass, Zoysia
japonica, were abandoned in favour of fast-growing foreign species.
Vast quantities of seeds were imported from North America. Seeds were mixed with fertiliser and spread extensively over eroded ground.
Three species of grass have had a particular impact: weeping lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula); european ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum); and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea). All these species readily colonise degraded land, including mountainsides and floodplains.
They outcompete local species and are a problem around riverbanks because they trap silt and clog up rivers.
Other weeds accidentally introduced to Japan include Erigeron annuus, a North American daisy, and Erigeron
canadensis, a horrible plant known as Canadian horseweed.
A particularly insidious import is the giant ragweed, Ambrosia trifida. This poisonous weed rapidly outcompetes other plants for light. These are thought to have arrived in Japan in contaminated batches of soya bean seeds.
Jim Bowles, Rugby, Warks.
QUESTION How did large, heavy, sea-going sailing ships leave or enter harbour when the wind was blowing in the wrong direction or was too light to power the ship?
ThIS wasn’t a problem. If a ship was outside the harbour, it could anchor and unload its cargo into oar-powered lighters — flat-bottomed barges.
Paying the lightermen put up the cost of the goods, but it prevented a more costly delay while the ship waited for the wind to change or strengthen.
If the ship was inside the harbour and unable to leave, there were two choices.
If the harbour was on a tidal estuary, the ship could drift out to sea on the ebbing tide. If not, rowed boats could be used to tow the ship out to sea.
The towing of sailing ships was a common practice. If a ship was becalmed while at sea, a long boat was often put out with a tow line attached, powered by as many as 20 sailors with oars.
The main effort was needed to get the ship moving. Once it was, the rowing became easier.
There are contemporary paintings of ships being moved this way.
Access to Bristol harbour, which dates back to the Middle Ages, is along the narrow Avon Gorge, where sailing is nearimpossible, unless the wind is directly behind, so it was normal practice for ships to be towed up and down between the harbour and the Bristol Channel.
Bob Cubitt, Northampton.
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow, G2 6DB; fax them to 0141 331 4739 or email them to charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.