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of the breed brought “to the United States under false colors.” I will pass this charge 
for the present, and let Mr. Joubert himself show the weights of fleeces of the most 
approved Australian merinos. Acting for the agricultural soziety he represents, this 
gentleman forwarded to the United States thirty-three merino fleeces which had re- 
ceived prizes at the exhibition at Sydney in 1871, “in order,” he stated, “to enable not 
only the buyers of wool, but also the breeders of sheep, to see what we produce; and with a view 
to bring about an exchange which must necessarily prove of mutual benefit.” You, Mc. Com- 
missioner of Agriculture, sent me ample samples of these specimen fleeces, accompanied 
by a descriptive catalogue giving average weight of each fleece in the lot from which 
it was taken, its time of growth, age of sheep, how bred, &c. Some of the fleeces 
were washed and some not. The relative weight of wool in the latter condition can- 
not, of course, be determined. 
Of the fleeces sent by Mr. Joubert which were washed and time of growth given, 
there were sixteen from ewes and three from rams. The following facts appear in re- 
lation to the three heaviest ewes’ fleeces : 
Weight of fleeces. Days’ growth. Age of sheep. 
BW Ost ciicis ee aueneaed 4 \bs. 43 oz. 392. ‘ 4 years and upward. 
BBW Gir Sphere dials 4 lbs. 14 oz. 330. 2 years and upward. 
JON Ae RAE ai RRS aie sha 4 lbs. 03 oz. O72. 4 years and upward. 
The eight next heaviest fleeces weighed from 3 pounds 2{ ounces to 3 pounds 13} ounces . 
Another fleece weighed 2 pounds 03 ounces; and the remaining four, from 1 pound 54 
ounces to 1 pound 9 ounces. 
The following appears in relation to the three rams’ fleeces: 
Weight of fleeces. Days’ growth. Age of sheep - 
REDE otter 2s SS 5 lbs. 14 02. 371. 2 to 4 years- 
JED CT Soe TP Se ee 4 lbs. 34 oz. 134 months. 134 months: 
apa. os gs aeed SoS e = 3 lbs. 13} oz. 13 months. 13 months. 
The answers to the question “ how bred,” show that the thiry-three specimen sheep 
belonged to no distiuct and established variety or family, known as “ Australian meri- 
nos,” but embraced numerous other varieties and crosses between those varieties. 
Thus but two are given as Australian merinos, and three as crosses between them and 
other varieties. Eight are given as Saxons, and they, too, have several crosses. Others 
are denominated “pure merinos;” ‘“home-bred;” ‘‘colonial-bred ;” ‘“ station-bred ;” 
“originally from imported Negretti ram;” ‘“ principally from German blood;” ‘from 
merino rams for upward of twenty years:” “from pure-bred merino ewes out of 
imported Rambouillet stock;” “from French merino rams for upward of twenty 
years,” &e. 
Prime ewes of the improved heavy-fleeced stock known among the breeders of them 
as full-blood American merinos, annually produce about six pounds of washed wool per 
head. In breeders’ (‘‘ram-sellers”) flocks, in which a rigid selection in regard to quan- 
tity of wool is practiced, such average weight sometimes reaches from seven to eight 
pounds’ weight. It is difficult to say how much washed wool rams of corresponding 
quality generally produce, as the heavier-fleeced stock-rams are almost universally 
shorn unwashed; but their fleeces have in numerous instances been scoured separately, 
by wool-manufacturers, and have yielded from six to eight pounds, and in one instance 
upwards of nine pounds of scowred wool. The material difference in the reduction of 
weight made by scouring and mere washing is understood by all. 
And now let us compare the relative market value, in this country, of different grades of 
merino wool. From 1827 to1861,inclusive, a period of thirty-five years, the average prices 
of wool each quarter of the vear, in Boston, one of uhe two leading wool-markets of the 
United States, was for fine, 503, cents, and for medium,42;4, cents per pound; the former aver- 
aging but 15 per centum higher than the latter; and this average ditterence has decreased 
instead of increasing during the period which has since elapsed. Ihe wools classed 
as fine “ineluded Saxon, grade Saxon, and choice lightish-fleece American merino; the 
tmediam included American merino and grade down, say to halt-blood.”* The first 
* The table of relative prices above referred t) (and it also included coarse wools) 
was prepared af my request by George Livermore, esq.,aneminent wool-merchant and 
Statistician of Boston, who compiled it from his owa books and those of his predecessors 
in the firm. I published it in “ Fine-Wool Husbandry,” and subsequently in “ The 
Practical Shepherd ;” and it has been repeatedly published elsewhere, without its ac- 
curacy ever having been called in question. The above classification or specification, 
by blood, of the sheep producing, respectively, the wool designated as “ fue’ and 
“medium,” was given by me in both the above-named works, and equally, I believe, 
without challenge. 
4A 
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