Ch. XXXIX.] ON WOOL. 483 



even of the fourtli descent, was produced in fineness nearly equal to the best 

 Spanish. Great exertions were at that time made by many patriotic per- 

 sons to forward this improvement, and expectations were raised of our being 

 soon able to rival the most celebrated of the Spanish flocks. These hopes 

 have, however, been disappointed : the Merino carcass was unprofitable : 

 the ewes not only produced few lambs, but were bad nurses, and the mo- 

 mentary advantage that was gained by the crosses has been wholly destroyed 

 by tlie superior quality of the German wools, and the low prices at which 

 they are now imported. The whole evidence before the Lords' Committee 

 in 1828, to which we have already alluded, goes indeed to prove, that the 

 wools of Saxony and Bohemia have entirely superseded the English short- 

 wool in our manufacture of fine cloth ; and its value would have fallen 

 below a remunerating price to the grower, had it not been partly coun- 

 terbalanced by the increase of weight, and found employment for other 

 valuable purposes. 



The improvement which has brought Saxon wool to such perfection was 

 commenced in 1765, by the Elector Augustus Frederick, who in that year 

 procured 300 rams and ewes from Spain ; and, in 1778, imported 400 

 more of the best breeds from the same country. His example was followed 

 by some other of the sovereigns of Europe, and their success also persuaded 

 his late Majesty George III. to adopt their views. Application was, accord-" 

 ingly, made to the Crown of Spain, and in the latter part of the last, and the 

 beginning of the present century, large numbers of sheep selected from the 

 most celebrated of the Spanish flocks were brought to England. These were 

 afterwards widely distributed, and the plan of crossing was assiduously prose- 

 cuted by several distinguished agriculturists. That it failed here, while it suc- 

 ceeded in Germany, was not owing to any inferiority in our soil or climate, but 

 is attributable to the superior value in this country of the carcass, which in 

 some parts of the continent is of very little account, while wool always 

 commands a ready sale. The plan was, therefore, abandoned, not from 

 any doubt of the improvement which it occasioned in the fleece, if the 

 sheep be fed upon short pasture, but from the difficulty of sustaining the 

 weight of flesh upon any other mode than that of grazing them upon rich 

 land, or feeding them under the present system of turnip husbandry; toge- 

 ther with some inaptitude in the original stock to fatten. Great efl"ort3 

 were made to effect both objects ; but experience has decidedly proved, 'that 

 the improvement of fleece and carcass cannot be combined, and the former 

 has necessarily given way to the latter. 



That the wool was materially improved by most of the crosses with 

 Spanish rams is well known to those who have tried them with judiciously 

 selected ewes of the short-woolled flocks ; as an instance of which is the 

 statement of an experiment made by the late Lord Somerville — in his 

 " Observations on Sheep," — with Merino tups and half-bred Ryeland 

 and Southdown ewes, produced by a cross between Spanish rams and our 

 native breeds, which gained a premium from the Bath and West of England 

 Agricultural Society. 



It appears that thirty of these half- Ryeland and half-Spanish ewes, when 

 tupped by a Spanish ram, whose fleece was not of the finest quality, yielded 

 96 lbs. of wool, with only 7 lbs. of F.'s and T.'s ; which is much less than 

 are usually thrown from pure Spanish wool : the produce being — 



lbs. oz. lbs. oz. 



C89 R. •) 

 J 6 8 F. J- 



t 8 T.j 



(63 6 R. 



la the fleece . .•^ 6 8 F. J- Washed and assorted , .■( 4 10 F. 



t 5 T. 

 2i2 



