WOOL INDUSTRY. ]87 



which the breeder turns to advantage, such as the silky Mauchamp 

 wool, rivalling the cashmere, or even modifications of the skeleton 

 form of the animal, as in the Ancon or oiler sheep of Rhode Island, 

 with limbs so formed that it cannot jump fences. A new attribute 

 attained by the breeder's foresight, or his judicious application of 

 happy accidents, may be of priceless value. Thence the immense 

 money value of the best stock sheep, — a value enhanced by the 

 rapidity with which the regenerating influence of the male propa- 

 gates itself. The influence of one buck in three or four years may 

 raise the wool product of a flock of a thousand sheep from five to 

 ten pounds for each individual. There are cases which justify 

 this statement. Thus, even in the time of the Emperor Tiberius, 

 Spanish rams were sold for a talent, — about a thousand dollars of 

 our money. The ram letting of two animals by Bakewcll, the 

 producer of the new Leicester sheep, produced in one season 

 twelve hundred guineas. Our Mr Hammond sold his bucks for 

 five thousand dollars each ; and even in Australia, where perfec- 

 tion in sheep-breeding might be supposed to be everywhere preva- 

 lent, a ram at a sheep auction in Melbourne, during the present 

 year, " after the keenest competition was knocked down at three 

 hundred and fifty-five guineas." 



In the history of agriculture no names stand so prominent as 

 great benefactors as those of Robert Bakewell, the creator of the 

 new Leicester; John Ellman and Jonas Mills, the improvers of 

 the South Downs ; Von Thaer and the Duke of Lecknowsky, in 

 Germany the improvers of the merinoes ; Daubenton, the associ- 

 ate of Buffon, the founder of the French merino ; Mr. McArthur, 

 the creator of the Australian sheep husbandry ; Edwin Hammond, 

 of Vermont, mainly the originator of the American merino. The 

 nobility of sheep-breeding is recognized in all the advanced na- 

 tions. The Empress Eugene took the flock of Rambouillet under 

 her special protection. The Queen of England takes pride in the 

 choice flocks which adorn her parks. The English nobleman 

 values the prizes for his perfected South Downs or Lincolns above 

 all the honors of the turf. And, at a dinner of the landed gentry, 

 the topic of sheep and turnips takes precedence of all other table- 

 talk. Such recognitions lift the creative work of the sheep- 

 breeder to the rank of the highest of the arts of agriculture, and 

 make its acquisition not only a source of national emolument, but 

 an object of national pride. 



