26 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 







an incli and a half in length on the back and sides, 

 shorter on the belly, and formed a considerably less 

 compact mass than that of the Spanish Merino. In 

 the best sheep, the surface of the fleece was smooth 

 and even (as if it had been cut off at a uniform 

 length), and it broke into masses of some size ; but 

 in inferior animals the wool grew in small discon- 

 nected tufts, which ended in points externally ; these 

 fell apart on the shoulder and along the back, and in 

 some instances partly hung down like hair or Leices- 

 ter wool, instead of standing at right angles to the 

 surface. The last indicated extreme thinness of fleece. 

 When to this was added a gauzy, half-peeled nose and 

 ear an ear as thin and almost as transparent as 

 parchment a pale skin, a carcass without depth and 

 about six inches thick, a camel-shaped neck, and long 

 spider legs, the " lower deep" of debility and de- 

 generacy was reached. 



But there was an atoning beauty about the wool of 

 the Saxon which it was hard to resist. It flashed with 

 such a gem-like lustre ; it was so beautifully fine and 

 even ; it had such an exquisite downiness of touch, 

 that all other wool seemed base by the side of it. I 

 have seen it so pliant, that a lock of it held upright 

 by the outer end, between a thumb and finger, and 

 gently played up and down, would bend and dance 

 like a plume. 



According to Youatt's measurements, the fibre was 

 about g-i- of an inch in diameter ; but he did not ob- 

 tain fine specimens of the wool. 



This variety had " touched bottom" in physical de- 

 generacy at the period of its importation to the United 

 States, and a reaction was commencing in breeding. 



