FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDED. 15 



lation to a dozen or two of them. Our early writers 

 on such topics appear to have eschewed .nothing so 

 much as exact and definite facts. 



Youatt ascertained, by actual admeasurement, that 

 the fibres of a specimen of picklock (the best) wool 

 from a JSTegretti fleece, had the diameter of T o- part 

 of an inch. Another " fair sample" which he thought 

 was probably fina, or ISTo. 2, and a third one taken 

 from Lord "Western's Merinos, in England, gave the 

 same admeasurement. This may probably be assumed 

 as the average fineness of the good Merino wool of 

 that day. 



Having attempted to show the principal character- 

 istics of this celebrated breed of sheep at the period of 

 its highest development in its native country, com- 

 ments and comparisons will be reserved until its 

 French and German offshoots also introduced into 

 the United States are first examined. 



The French Merino. 



Colbert, the eminent French statesman, was the first, 

 so far as I have ascertained, who attempted the trans- 

 plantation of the Spanish Merino into other lands. 

 Eor have I learned the date of .that attempt. Colbert 

 was born in 1619, and died in 1683. Occupied in in- 

 cessant and harassing cares, he could give no personal 

 attention to his experiment, and it is to be presumed 

 the sheep encountered among his dependents that ob- 

 stinate antipathy which subsequently met them among 

 the ignorant in every other country outside of Spain. 

 As would be expected under such circumstances, they 

 attracted no notice, and soon disappeared. A subse- 



