SECRETARY'S REPORT. 133 



tainly do in many instances, the remedy is suggested at once — 

 replace the animal with "golden feet." After devoting the best 

 of our land to cultivation and the poorest to wood, we have thou- 

 sands upon thousands of acres evidently intended by the Creator 

 for sheep walks, because better adapted for this purpose than for 

 any other. An indication of Providence so unmistakable as this 

 should not be unheeded. 



The Merinos are perhaps the most ancient race of sheep extant. 

 They originated in Spain, and were for ages bred there alone. In 

 1765 they were introduced into Saxony, where they were bred with 

 care and with special reference to increasing the fineness of the 

 wool, little regard being paid to other considerations. They were 

 also taken to France and to Silesia, and from all these sources 

 importations have been made into the United States. The Spanish 

 Merino has proved the most successful, and by skill and care in 

 breeding has been greatly improved, insomuch that intelligent judges 

 are of opinion that some of the Vermont flocks are superior to the 

 best in Europe, both in form, hardiness, quantity of fleece and 

 staple. They are too well known to require a detailed description 

 here. Suffice it to say that they are below rather than above 

 medium size, possessing a good constitution, and are thrifty, and 

 cheaply kept. Their chief merit is as fine wooled sheep, and as 

 such they excel all others. As mutton sheep they are constitution- 

 ally and anatomically deficient, being of late maturity and great 

 longevity, (a recommendation as fine wooled sheep,) having too 

 flat sides, too narrow chests, too little meat in the best parts, and 

 too great a percentage of offal when slaughtered. Their mutton, 

 however, is of fair quality when mature and well fatted. As 

 nurses they are inferior to many other breeds. Many careful, ex- 

 tensive and protracted attempts have been made to produce a breed 

 combining the fleece of the Merino with the carcass of the Leices- 

 ter or other long wooled sheep. They have all signally failed. The 

 forms, characteristics and qualities of breeds so unlike seem to be 

 incompatible with one another. A cross of the Merino buck and 

 Leicester ewe gives progeny which is of more rapid growth than 

 the Merino alone, and is hardier than the Leicester. It is a good 

 cross for the butchers' use, but not to be perpetuated. Improve- 

 ment in the Merino should be sought by skillful selection and pair- 

 ing the parents in view of their relative fitness to one another. 



The Leicester, or more properly the New Leicester, is the breed 

 which Bakewell established, and is repeatedly referred to in the pre- 



