OTHEE MERINO FAMILIES. 33 



is their adaptation to thin, scant herbage, and to their qualities 

 as "working flocks." They demand no extra care or keep 

 to develop their qualities, are always lively and alert; and 

 though gentle and perfectly free from restlessness of tempera- 

 ment, they are ready to rove far and near to obtain their food. 

 And for all they consume they make the most ample returns. 

 While they will pay for care, they will thrive with but little 

 care. In a word, they remain, par excellence, the negligent 

 farmer's sheep. 



The ewe, the .portrait of which is given on page 31, is a 

 three year old of this family, and is one of a small number of 

 equal appearance and excellence, which I bought of the Messrs. 

 Rich a year since. Her second fleece, when she was not so 

 large as a high-kept yearling, and when she had not been 

 housed before autumn, weighed 10 Ibs. unwashed. Having 

 bred both these and the Infantados for years, and being now 

 about equally interested in both the improved families, I trust 

 I can speak of them with impartiality; and I may here add 

 that I also described Mr. Jarvis' sheep on ample personal 



OTHER MERIXO FAMILIES. There were in 184,0, a few 

 small Merino flocks descended from pure Spanish importations, 

 and derived from other sources than the foregoing, scattered 

 very thinly through the States lying west of New England. 

 Like the best Infantados and Paulars of that day, some of them 

 averaged about 4J Ibs. of washed wool to the fleece. I have 

 been unable to obtain any authentic portraits of known 

 Infantados or Paulars of that period. The drawing from 

 which the cut given on the following page was taken, was 

 made in 1 840, by Francis Rotch, Esq., of Morris, (then called 

 Louisville,) N. Y., one of the most eminent and skillful cattle 

 and sheep breeders in the United States, and remarkable then 

 as since for the accuracy and spirit of his drawings of animals. 

 The cut is a ewe of his own flock of thirty breeding ewes, 

 which had been selected with much care from difierent flocks 

 in New England ; and this one was then regarded as a model. 

 She is rounder in the rib, broader and rounder in the thigh 

 and fuller in the brisket than was common among the Merinos 

 of that day. The illustration will show the changes which 



* The account which I have given of the characteristics, &c., of these families 20 

 years ago, was submitted, in substantially the same form, to some of the most 

 prominent present breeders of each variety, including Mr. Hammond and Mr. Rich, 

 preparatory to its publication in my Report on Fine- Wool Husbandry in 1862, and it 

 received their unanimous concurrence. See that Report, p. 53. 

 2* 



