104 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF BREEDING. 



which, so far as the facts occurred in the United States, fell 

 under my own observation. A ram having ears of not more 

 than a quarter the usual size appeared ill a flock of Saxon 

 sheep, in Germany. He was a superior animal, and got 

 valuable stock. These were inter-bred and a "little-eared" 

 sub -family created.* Some of these found their way into 

 the United States, between 1824 and 1828. One of the 

 rams came into Onondaga County, New York. He was a 

 choice animal, and his owner, David Ely, valued his small 

 ears as a distinctive mark of his blood. He bred a flock 

 by him, and gradually almost bred off their ears entirely. 

 His flock enjoyed great celebrity and popularity in its day, 

 but has long been broken up, and many years have doubtless 

 elapsed since any of the surrounding sheep owners have used 

 a " little - eared " ram. Yet nearly every flock that retains 

 a drop of that blood even coarse mutton sheep bred away 

 from it, probably for ten or fifteen generations, insomuch 

 that all Saxon characteristics have totally disappeared still 

 continue to throw out an occasional lamb as distinctly 

 marked with the precise peculiarity under consideration, as 

 Mr. Ely's original stock. 



Another much more important alledged case in point, is 

 that of the Mauchamp family of Merinos in France. The 

 published accounts of them declare that, in 1828, "a Merino 

 ewe produced a peculiar ram lamb having a different shape 

 from the usual Merino, and possessing a long, straight, silky 

 character of wool," " similar to mohair," and " remarkable 

 for its qualities as a combing wool." Mons. J. L. Graux, the 

 owner of this lamb, bred from him others which resembled 

 him. "In each subsequent year," the account continues, 

 "the lambs were of two kinds, ono possessing the curled, 

 elastic wool of the old Merinos, only a little longer and finer ; 

 the other like the new breed. At last the skillful breeder 

 obtained a flock combining the fine, silky fleece, with a 

 smaller head, broader flanks and more capacious chest." 

 This, excepting in the matter of being "finer" than the 

 Merino, (and I am unable to say what Mons. Graux considers 

 fine,) is a pretty good description of a mongrel between a 

 Merino and some long-wooled variety, and such I have no 



enervated by idleness. And as vigor depends upon the volume of the muscle and 

 upon the conformation of both the muscles and general frame, it follows that the 

 shape is measurably controlled by the properties, and that artificial shapes become 

 hereditary. 



* This was the explanation given me of the origin of these sheep by my lamented 

 friend, the late Henry D. Grove. 



