Hayes] 418 [March 18, 



races. Dr. RandiiU declan's that "all attempts to form permanent 

 intermediate varieties of value hy crosses between the merino aiid 

 any family of the mutton sheep with the view of combining the spec- 

 ial excellencies of each have ended in utter fiilure."* The German 

 breeders say that it is impoxaible to transform, by crossing, the conmion 

 sheej) into merinos. Even after nine generations the common type 

 reappears as .soon as the use of merino rams of the pure blood has 

 ceased. t It is for this reason that the Germans refuse to the highest 

 bred grade any other tlesignation than improved Art//' breeds. J 



The constant use of regeneratoi-s of pure blooded Angoras, if they 

 could be procured, which would soon be impossible, from domestic 

 sources, if the system of crossing should be persisted in, would be of 

 little avail. In the Asiatic goat we have a perfect standard, as in the 

 Arabian horse. Mr. Youatt sa}'s of the English races of the horse 

 descended from the Godoljihin Araljian, or the Darley Arabian and 

 the blood mares of Charles I., "where one drop of common Ijlood has 

 mingled with the pure stream, it has been immediately detected in the 

 inferiority of form and deficiency of bottom. "§ So, we may infer, 

 will a drop of blood of the common gof.t detract from the lustre and 

 fineness of fibre found in the pure Asiatic race. 



The elaborate article of DJr. Flcischman on German fine wool hus- 

 bandryll gives the results of constantly regenerating by the pure me- 

 rino ram, the cross from the pure merino and common country sheep. 

 At the fourth generation the fieece consists of 25 per cent, prima, 50 

 per cent, .sec ttnc/rt, and 25 per cent. ^e;'^m wool. The nature of the 

 wool is still coarse. There are about eighteen thousand wool hairs in 

 a square inch. In the tenth generation the fine wool predominates. 

 A fleece yields from GO to 70 jier cent, prima, 20 to 25 per cent, cve- 

 cunda, and 10 to 15 per cent, tertia vfoo\. In the twentieth genera- 

 tion the fleece, by regular crossing and careful management, has 20 per 

 cent, electa, 50 per cent, prima, 20 per cent, sectmda and 10 per cent. 

 iertia wool. There will yet be sometimes found stickel or coarse hair. 

 At this period twenty-seven thousand wool hairs grow upon a square 

 inch. Thus even at the twentieth generation, with the constant use 

 of regenerators of the pure blood, the wool falls short of the fineness 

 of the original or perfectly pure blooded annual, which has from forty 

 thousand to forty-eight thousand wool hairs on a square inch. These 

 facts show how slow is the appi'oach to fineness of fibre even in 

 crosses of animals descended from a remote though common ancestor. 



* The Tractical Shepherd, p. 125. 

 tSacc. Bull. supr. cit., T. v., p. 571. 

 i Practical Shepherd, p. 127. 

 §Youatt on the Horse. 

 II Tatent Office Itepcrt. 1847. p. 253. 



