Sbme Circumstances relative to Merino Sheep. 289 



The wool was at first found to be quite as difficult of sale 

 as the sheep themselves ; manufacturers were therefore em- 

 ployed to make a considerable quantity of it into cloth, 

 which, when finished, was allowed by both woollen-drapers 

 and tailors to be quite as good as cloth made of wool im- 

 ported from Spain. But even this proof would not satisfy 

 the scruples of the wool buyers, or induce them to offer a 

 price at all adequate to the real value of the article : it was 

 found necessary, therefore, to have the wool scoured, and 

 to sell it in that state as Spanish wool, which, though grown 

 in England, it really was. Thus managed, the sales were 

 easily effected for some years, at a price equal to that de- 

 manded for the prima piles of imported Spanish wool at the 

 times when the bargains were made. 



Time and patience have at last superseded all difficulties, 

 and his majesty's wool has now for some years been sold as 

 clipped from the sheep's backs, the sheep having been 

 washed, and the whole management of them carried on ex- 

 actly in the English manner, at a price not lower than 

 4s. 6d. a pound, which, allowing for the loss of weight in 

 the scouring, costs the buyer at least 5s. 6d. a pound, a tole- 

 rable price for Spanish wool when plenty of it could be pro- 

 duced, though not possibly so high an one as ought to have, 

 been given or as will be obtained for the Anglo-Negrete pile, 

 when the value of the article is fully understood. 

 <• The race of another capital Cavana has now been added 

 to the riches of this country, the Paular, and the draught 

 from it is larger than on any other occasion has been suf- 

 fered to leave Spain ; the animals have been selected with 

 skill and attention, the pile they belong to stands at the very 

 top of our English list, and the sheep have been most for- 

 tunately placed at the disposal of our most gracious king, 

 whose shepherds have demonstrated to the public, in an ex- 

 perience of 17 years of their management of these interesting 

 animals, that they can not only continue the breed in its 

 original purity, but can also preclude all danger of degene- 

 ration in the article of wool. What more can be wished for 

 on this head ? 



That spirit of patriotism, which induced our sovereign to 

 Vol, 33. No. 132, April 1S09. T declare 



