CHAPTER VII. 



THE POINTS TO BE EEGAEDED IE FlflE-WOOLED SHEEP, 



CARCASS SKIN FOLDS OR WRINKLES FLEECE FINENESS 



EVENNESS TRUENESS AND SOUNDNESS PLIANCY AND 



SOFTNESS STYLE. AND LENGTH OF WOOL. 



WHETHER in purchasing sheep for the establishment of 

 flocks, or in carrying on the breeding of existing flocks, it is 

 necessary to have a clear knowledge of those points which 

 constitute the peculiar excellencies of the chosen variety. 

 With respect to the English mutton breeds, this information 

 was placed before the world with all the precision and 

 accuracy of combined scientific and practical knowledge, by 

 the late Mr. Youatt by far the most comprehensive and 

 able investigator in this department of knowledge, and also 

 in the veterinary art, the world has yet known. The new 

 discoveries, advances, or changes in public taste, which have 

 taken place in breeding the English sheep since his day, have 

 been carefully described by Mr. Spooner, Professor Wilson, 

 and various other writers, in the English Agricultural 

 periodicals, particularly by the authors of the prize essays 

 published in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. 

 In one form or another, all these publications have become 

 widely known to the American public. They are to be found 

 in every considerable library. Our American works on sheep 

 have been at least so far as English breeds are concerned 

 but reprints of them. Our universally disseminated Agricul- 

 tural Journals have spread all their most important contents 

 broadcast throughout our country. 



The fine-wooled or Merino sheep has been made the 

 subject of comparatively little accurate and detailed 

 investigation and description. Spain, the native land of this 

 breed, has no literature which pertains to sheep.* In Great 



* Though much that pertains to shepherds and shepherdesses ! Cervantes several 

 times makes himself merry over the pastoral literature of Spain. Speaking of his own 



