242 Some Circumstances relative to Merino Sheep. 



A considerable part of E-strcmadura., Leon, and the 

 neighbouring provinces of Spain, is appropriated to the main- 

 tenance of the Merino flocks, called py the Spaniards Tra- 

 shumantes, as are also broad green roads, leading from one 

 province to the other, and extensive resting-places, where 

 the sheep are baited on the road. So careful is the police of 

 the country to preserve them -during their journeys from all 

 hazard of disturbance or interruption, that no person, not 

 even a foot passenger, is suffered to travel upon these roads 

 while the sheep are in motion, unless he belongs to the flocks. 



The country on which the sheep are depastured, both in 

 the southern and the northern parts, is set out into divi- 

 sions, separated from each other by land-marks only, with- 

 out any kind of fences; each of these is called a Dehesa, 

 and is of a size capable of maintaining a flock of about a 

 thousand sheep ; a greater number, of course, in the south 

 country, where the lambs are reared, and fewer in the north 

 country, where the sheep arrive after the flock has been 

 culled. 



Every proprietor must possess as many of these in each 

 province as will maintain his flock. In the temperate sea- 

 son of winter and spring, the flocks remain in Estremadura, 

 and there the ewes bring forth their lambs. in December. As 

 soon as the increasing heats of April and May have scorched 

 up the grass, and rendered the pasturage scanty, they com- 

 mence their march towards the mountains of Leon ; and, 

 after having been shorn on the road, at vast establishments 

 called Esquileos, erected for that purpose, pass their sum- 

 mer .in the elevated country, which supplie-s them with 

 abundance of rich grass ; and they do not leave the moun- 

 tains till the frosts of September begin to damage the herbage. 



A flock in the aggregate is called a Cavana : this is divided 

 into as many subdivisions as there are thousands of sheep, 

 belonging to it ; each sheep, besides being sear-marked in 

 the face with a hot iron when young, is branded after every 

 shearing with a broad -pitch brand, generally of the first 

 letter of the name of the proprietor, and each subdivision is 

 distinguished from the rest by the part of the sheep's body 

 on which this mark is placed. 



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