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care, system, and judgment; and this with a view to both mutton and wool. 
Combing-wools seem now to be most valued and carefully bred. There is none 
of this class imported which competes successfully with that of British growth, 
unless it be some from Australia and New Zealand, the yield of long-wooled 
breeds exported thither years ago, and now composing large flocks there. 
‘‘ Cross-bred sheep, as they are called, are favorites with most feeders ; and for 
certain purposes the wool of some of the crosses is highly valued. Leicester 
tups bred to Cheviot ewes make a popular cross. Both parents, in every case, 
are kept pure for the purpose. And it seems to be universally conceded that 
the first cross is alone desirable. It is seldom carried further, unless by way of 
experiment. The conclusion I arrived at is, that to constant and systematic 
care is ascribable the almost uniform success in this business in Great Britain. 
«To one point of exceeding interest to us, in Texas, I gave much attention. 
Just before the war, certain lots of Merino tups, infested with that dreadful pest 
the scab, were brought into the State, and having been readily bought up for 
the further improvement of flocks, disseminated the disease all over the State. 
During the war the usual remedies employed for destroying the scab insect were 
not readily attainable, or could not be spared for this purpose, so that the pest 
spread more and more, almost exterminating many flocks, and these always of 
the finest-wooled Merinoes. Some persevered most faithfully, under every diffi- 
culty, in their efforts to eradicate the disease, employing various means, as 
‘strong lime-water with sulphur, tobacco ooze, arsenic, &c.; but, as is supposed,. 
without complete success in any instance. Mr. G. W. Kendall, in one of his 
valuable articles in the Texas Almanac for 1867-—valuable, because always. 
honestly true, and to the point—recounting failures as well as successes, hopes. 
to sueceed by the use of tobacco. 
“‘T could not learn of any entire cure by this means alone, either in Great Brit- 
ain, Australia or New Zealand, in which colonies scaé well-nigh ruined the flock- 
master in spite of tobacco, sulphur, arsenic, &c. The insect may be destroyed 
in the flock by the repeated and persevering use of these ingredients, but their 
effect is soon dissipated. The insect is still present in the range or sheep-walk, 
and on every tree or post against which the poor tortured animal may have 
rubbed itself; or a single infested sput on asingle animal of the flock may have 
been overlooked, and soon proves sufficient in the clear atmosphere of the colonies 
named, so like our own, to infest the entire flock. Moreover, all of these rem- 
edies, together with mercurial preparations, hellebore, &c., are dangérous both 
to sheep and shepherd ; and, as was pointed out to us by wool-buyers and con- 
sumers, all render the wool more or less harsh, and tender in the staple. This 
was sought to be remedied by the use of oily compounds. In old times, and to 
some extent in the highlands of Scotland even yet, sheep were smeared with a 
mixture of pine tar and palm oil, or cheap butter. But the damage to the wool 
by staining, &c., is so great as to have caused its abandonment, except upon 
open-fleeced breeds in exposed ranges. 
“The discovery within a few years of the acid of coal-tar, known as carbolic, 
cresylic or phenic acid, and of its effects upon insect life, and as a most powerful 
disinfectant, antiseptic, and curative and cleanser of sores and wounds, has pro- 
duced a complete revolution in sheep-dips. 
“ Certain manufacturing chemists in England made and patented saponaceous 
and other compounds of ecresylic acid. One of these, a cheap compound of the 
crude acid with fatty matters, made slightly saponaceous, and known as 
McDougall’s sheep dip, has come into almost universal use. 
“The writer, finding this to be the case, as the result of his search after a 
means of ridding Texas of the pest, followed up the subject from the laboratory, 
the farm of the sheep-walk, to the wool market and the factory, and found the 
report to be, with hardly a dissenting voice, that it supplied the great desider- 
atum—a cheap means of destroying vermin and curing cutaneous diseases in 
