96 PRINCIPLES OF STOCK-BREEDING. 



The great development in fattening quality and 

 in early maturity, that characterizes the modern meat- 

 producing breeds of cattle and sheep, has been secured 

 by a liberal supply of nutritious food during the pe- 

 riod of growth, in connection with a judicious system 

 of breeding, that has fixed and made dominant the 

 desirable modifications thus obtained. 



The Spanish merino sheep, imported into this 

 country in the early part of the present century, were 

 valued principally for their wool, the peculiar system 

 of management to which they had been subjected for 

 many generations having made them decidedly defi- 

 cient in ability to fatten and in the quality of their 

 flesh. 



Their descendants, from the influence of modified 

 habits and a better supply of food, present such a 

 wide departure from the original type, in the greater 

 weight and quality of fleece, in the increased tendency 

 to fatten, and the marked improvement in the quality 

 of flesh, that they are justly entitled to the distinctive 

 appellation of American merinoes which is now gen- 

 erally given them. 



The breeders of merino sheep have been directing 

 their attention almost exclusively to the improvement 

 of the fleece, and the greater value of the improved 

 breed for the purposes of the feeder and the butcher 

 has been obtained through the means adopted for 

 the development of other characters. 



It is perhaps impossible to obtain any decided 

 modification of a single character without producing 

 corresponding modifications of other parts of the or- 

 ganization. 



