SHEEP-FARMING. 41 



resembles in general and particular type, the best of the 

 French Merino, i. e., those of the ' Cabana Imperial,' the 

 Eambouillets, par excellence, which are truer in shape and 

 finer than any other French Cabanas. 



The characteristics of the Merino, with which our flocks 

 have been ' mestizado,' are small carcass, fine and not very 

 long wool, and rather open in fleece. This openness of 

 fleece has been considerably increased through the cross 

 with the Creole ; and the progressive tendency of the ex- 

 isting breed, coupled with the method of breeding pursued, 

 and the maintenance of the sheep, has been, and is, to 

 reduce, step by step, the weight of the fleece, as well as 

 the length and strength of the staple. 



There are many causes which contribute to this. 

 Amongst them I will name the inequality of maintenance, 

 whereby the development of the young animal is impeded 

 or curtailed, and the wool rendered short, brittle, and false 

 in staple the use of small cross-bred rams of remarkably 

 light fleeces the putting of these rams into the flock 

 at too early an age, and allowing them to run with the 

 flock all the year round, whence they are often reduced to 

 the lowest degree of wretchedness, debility, and disease 

 permitting old ewes to remain in the flock to breed poor 

 weedy lambs, which in turn transmit their hereditary de- 

 bility and weedyness to their progeny ; also allowing 

 ' borregas ' (immature ewes) to take the ram at too early 

 an age, thereby producing the same results as breeding 

 from old ewes. 



The consequences of these causes combined are marked 

 in the extreme, even in the finest flocks of those extensive 

 estancieros who have been the pioneers of sheep-farming, 

 and from whose stock, directly or indirectly, nine-tenths 

 of the Mestizo flocks in the country have sprung. I be- 

 lieve that I am correct in stating that the Merino flocks 



