96 APPENDIX. 



The breeds of sheep I have had and tested are the common native ; 

 Bakewell, or New Leicester; New Oxfordshire; South Downs; 

 French and Spanish merinos ; and the African broad-tails. 



With me, the Spanish merinos have proved the most profitable ; the 

 first of which I had from the flocks of Dr. Randall. 



I *have crossed the merino with nearly all the above-named breeds. 



I am inclined to think that good native ewes make the best cross 

 with the merino, and make a more salable sheep than any of the 

 above-named full-bloods. 



I am now breeding the merino and broad-tailed. 



If I were raising wool as the primary consideration, I would by all 

 means raise the merino. They do not mature so early as the other 

 breeds ; but, when matured, make as good mutton as any breed I have 

 ever raised. But, if the principal object should be to raise mutton for 

 the markets, I would certainly recommend the African broad-tailed 

 sheep, because they mature earlier ; but, in my husbandry, I make the 

 wool the first, the mutton the secondary, consideration. But, were 

 the question one of long-combing wool for this locality, I would cross 

 the Cotswold ewe with the African broad-tail ram, for all the range 

 of country here, this side the Blue Ridge. 



The annual cost of keeping my sheep, I charge up at one dollar per 

 head. The actual cost I have found to be not over sixty cents per 

 head. 



As to the per cent of profit my sheep pay : if they are full-blooded, 

 they will average not far from ten dollars ; and, making that, they give 

 about twenty per cent., allowing the lambs to pay expenses ; but, if 

 they are only half-breeds, they will not average more than a dollar 

 and a half per fleece. 



My average annual clip of unwashed wool, per sheep, from full- 

 blood merinos, is seven pounds : the average price of which last 

 season was twenty-two cents ; this season, twenty-eight, net, to me 

 here. 



I think the cost per pound of wool gives it to you as net gain ; for 

 it must be a very poor and very badly managed flock in which the 

 lambs and manure will not pay all expenses, 



The average number of my lambs raised is, from my merinos, about 

 eighty per cent. Compared with the ewes kept, they are not, as a rule, 

 as good nurses as most of the other breeds ; some of which will rear 

 nearly one hundred per cent of their lambs. I have always sold my 

 lambs for herding, stock sheep, &c., not to the butcher. 



Our common sheep can be had here for two dollars per head; 



