CROSSING AMERICAN AND FRENCH MERINOS. 129 



between the Negretti and Infantado families, and continued 

 in the United States by Mr. Chamberlain, and its results have 

 already been described. 



The cross between the French and American Merino has 

 been well spoken of in some quarters, but it has not yet, so 

 far as my individual observation has extended, justified those 

 expectations which, it would seem, might reasonably be based 

 on the character of the materials. The best French ewe, or the 

 French and American Merino ewe (with a sufficient infusion 

 of French blood to have large size,) has few superiors as a pure 

 Avool-producing animal. But the wool lacks yolk to give it 

 weight. The full-blood French sheep also lacks in hardi- 

 ness*. Both it and its cross-breeds are excellent nurses. The 

 American Merino ram has a super-abundance of the desired 

 yolkiness of fleece and of hardiness. As the smaller animal, 

 his progeny have especial advantages for an excellent develop- 

 ment before parturition, and they receive abundant nutrition 

 afterwards. Here then, seemingly, are all the requisite 

 conditions for an excellent cross ; and I cannot but believe 

 that such a cross will be made with decided success, as soon 

 as precisely the fitting individual materials are brought 

 together and managed with the requisite skill.f 



The cross between the American and Saxon Merino results 

 proverbially well better in almost every instance than 

 it would be considered reasonable to anticipate. I gave a 



* It lacks very materially in hardiness if from a pampered flock, or immediately 

 descended from pampered ancestors. The early crosses between French and American 

 Merino sheep require extra attention when young, but when fully grown are, on fair 

 keep, a healthy and hardy animal. 



t I tried this cross a few years since, and the following statement of the results 

 appeared in my Report on Fine Wool Husbandry, 1862: "My own experiments in 

 this cross, candor requires me to say, have been less successful. Some of them were 

 made with a ram bred by Col. F. M. Rotch and pure-blood American Merino ewes; 

 some were purchased of gentlemen who started with such ewe's and bred them to first- 

 rate French ranis obtained of Messrs. Taintor and Patterson; and some were got by 

 pure American rams on high grade French and American ewes (averaging say fifteen- 

 sixteenths or more French, and the remainder American Merino blood.) From this 

 last cross I expected much. The ewes were compact and noble looking animals. The 

 produce was obviously better than the get of French rams on the same ewes, but after 

 watching it for two years, I have recently come rather reluctantly to the conclusion 

 that, in this climate, even these grades are not intrinsically as valuable as pure 

 American Merinos. But the Merino ram which got them, though apparently present- 

 ing the most admirable combination of points for such a cross, has not proved himself 

 a superior sire with other ewes ; and I do not therefore regard this experiment as 

 conclusive. (This ram weighed about 140 Ibs., was compact and symmetrical, and his 

 fleece weighed 14 Ibs. washed. He was a very dark, yolky sheep. He was bred in 

 Vermont; and though undoubtedly full blood, probably did not spring from ancestors 

 as good as himself, or in other words, he was an " accidental " animal.) Some well- 

 managed experiments of both these kinds have been tried by the Messrs. Baker, of 

 Lafayette, and the Messrs. Clapp, of Pompey, N. Y. They bred toward the French 

 until they obtained about fifteen-sixteenths of that blood, and now find the cross best 

 the other way. One of the last of these crosses now appears to promise extremely 

 well." 



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