^Q LENGTH OF MERINO WOOL. 



Campbell wrote to me: "The sheep are nearly all of my own 

 stock, which have been bred from the Jarvis and Humphreys 

 importation, and recently from Mr. Hammond's flock." 



Mr. Prosper Elithorp, of Bridport, Vermont, recently sent 

 me a number of samples of his own wool and that of Mr. O. 

 B. Cook, of Charlotte, Vermont. Mr. Elithorp's, from ewes 

 over one year old, and all having lambs, range from 2^ to 2f 

 inches long, and that of a ram is 3^ inches long, though aU 

 lack 45 days of a year's growth. A part of these ewes are 

 Paulars and a part Infantados. Two of Mr. Cook's (one from 

 a yearling and the other from a two year old ewe,) measure 

 3^ inches long, and the rest (from yearlings,) from 2f to 2f 

 inches. The sheep are pure Infantados. 



Mr. A. J. Stow, of West Cornwall Vermont, has for- 

 warded me numerous specimens. The longest is 3f inches 

 long, two of them are 3, and most of the remainder are about 

 2f inches long. They are all from ewes over one year old, 

 and the wool lacks three or four days of a year's growth. 

 Mr. Stow says "they are all from his Hammond sheep." 



I have an old specimen of wool from a Paular ram, bred 

 by one of the Robinson's, of Shoreham, Vermont, (and owned 

 by Myrtle & Ackerson, of Steuben County, New York,) 

 which measures 3^ inches long. 



The recent Vermont specimens above given are fairer tests 

 of the length of the longer stapled American Merino wool, 

 from the fact that they were not sent in any case as specimens 

 of mere length, but of fleeces of extraordinary weight. And 

 I think great length is not now usually particularly valued in 

 any other connection. The sheep which yield the most 

 extraordinary weights of fleece, indeed, rarely have extremely 

 long wool, because such length is rarely accompanied by 

 sufficient thickness. Mr. Hammond's "Sweepstakes," whose 

 weight of fleece has probably never been excelled, yields 

 wool not exceeding 2 inches long, and "21 percent.," several 

 times named in this volume, probably never excelled in the 

 proportion of wool to meat, yields wool 2f inches long. 



