[32] 



On Merino Sheep. By Samuel L. Howell 



Ashfieldy Gloucester Co. JV. J. June 18, 1813. 

 Dear sir, 



Your letter, with the accompanying certificate, has 

 been duly received and I must trust in your lenity for 

 forgiveness for having suffered it to remain thus long un- 

 answered. 



I very much regret that it has not before been in my 

 power to devote that attention to the subject of your 

 letter which required a full and satisfactory answer. The 

 propagation of Merino sheep, has of late engrossed my 

 attention almost to the entire exclusion of agricultural 

 improvement ; and from the present size of my flock, I 

 am forced to conform my whole system of farming to 

 their convenience and accommodation. Any knowledge 

 however, which my limited experience may have afford- 

 ed of the diseases of these animals that can in any wise 

 aid you in your present useful and praiseworthy under- 

 taking, I will most cheerfully communicate ; with this 

 proviso however, that you will use the facts, but not the 

 garb, in which they greet you. 



In complying with your request on this head, I shall 

 confine myself to those diseases alone, which have come 

 particularly under my observation, and of this number, 

 only to such, as in the late treatises on sheep, have either 

 not been noticed at all, or have been so described as not 

 to accord with my own experience. The worm 4n the 

 head, prolapsus vaginas et uteri, abortion, cholera, and 

 foot rot, come properly under this description. 



