Mekino Sheep Industuy. 209 



produced, is the cause of the liigh vahie of Saxon sheep 

 and their s])read over so Large a portion of Europe and 

 remote parts oi' the world.'' 



No other breed were so highly prized on the Continent, 

 and none commanded such enormous figures. " In- 

 dividual sheep, of nncontaminated blood, often brought from 

 one hundred and forty to two hundred and fifty dollars ; a 

 flock was purchased, destined for Russia, a few years since, 

 for wliich the average price paid exceeded five hundred dol- 

 lars ; and latterly rams have been sold at the almost incred- 

 ible price of from one hundred to near three hundred 

 guineas per head. The cause of these extravagant prices 

 has been stated ; and so long as there exist grades in society, 

 and. the liighest of these covet a wardrobe of the finest text- 

 ure, and no substitute is found, as in Italy, the breed will 

 -continue to be appreciated and sedulously cultivated." 



It would expand this paper too much for me to detail the 

 introduction of Spanish Merinos into tother parts of Ger- 

 many, Prussia, Austria, etc. Sufiice it to say that many 

 •districts rival Saxony ; Prussia, especially, fosters her flocks, 

 and not only by premiums bestowed by lier agricultural 

 societies, but by that enlightened policy of p'.'otection to 

 domestic industry which so truly characterizes that govern- 

 ment, even to the prohibition of manufactured goods 

 imported, and tlie export of their raw, unmanufactured 

 wools; and, probably, in no one thing, not even in. arms, 

 has Prussia advanced more durini; tlie last twentv years 

 than in her wool and woolen interests, under tlie most suc- 

 <tessful workings of her prohibitory tarift'. 



But the high positions of the woolen industry of tliese 



