244 Comparison of Tunis and Merino }Vooi. 
toit) except that from Mr. Livingston’s stock. 1 enter 
into no comparisons on this subject; not professing to 
have sufhcient qualifications for it. The celebrity of Col. 
Humphreys’s sheep and wool, is generally known. But 
Ihave never seen any of his prime sheep, nor their 
wool; though I have seen many of the mixed breed 
from his stock. I had with me at Mr. Dupont’s, sam- 
ples of the Tunis wool; which I had the opportunity 
there of comparing with several specimens of the merina 
fleeces, from several quarters. With Mr. Dupont’s wool, 
mine will bear no comparison. But I was myself sur- 
prised to find, that the wool of the ewe No. 2, in the 
plate, will compete with, and is considered by those 
who are judges, as fine in its fibre as, that of a sample 
of real merino wool, off a sheep imported into New- Y ork 
from Spain; and offered, with several others, for sale ; 
at the price of 1500 dollars each. I should once have 
thought my own, and more particularly this merino 
wool, of a very extraordinary degree of fineness. But it 
required very little discernment, to distinguish the dif- 
ference, in favor of Mr. Dujont’s wool. I know mine 
(when justice is done to a flock, in selection and keep- 
ing) to be evidently superior to most, and equal to any, 
of the wool I have compared it with, except the me- 
rino. I have sent herewith samples, by which my opi- 
nion may be tested. And yet the Zunzs wool is by many, 
held in disrepute ; because those who have these pre- 
judices, have met with fleeces from crosses with coarse 
wooled sheep. I have myself seen multitudes of morti- 
fying instances of this kind of inattention; and especially 
where large, or white, sheep, were the objects of crossing. 
It is far from my intention, to hold up this wool, as 
to fineness, on any equality with a good merino fleece. 
