FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 41 



of some of the most celebrated flocks of Spain, to 

 have on the spot a public agent who had the sagacity 

 and energy to avail himself of the opportunity to 

 confer an inestimable benefit on his country. 



Mr. Jarvis very unfortunately crossed a portion 

 of his large flock of Spanish Merinos with the 

 Saxons, when the latter were brought into the 

 country ; but he discovered his error in time to correct 

 it,* and made those careful arrangements which 



* Mr. Jarvis wrote to me in 1844, a letter, from which the following 

 and some other extracts were published in the same year, in the 

 Albany Cultivator and New York Agriculturist : 



"In May, 1826, 1 purchased 52 or 53 at the sale in Brighton, Mass., 

 cf the large importation of Saxony sheep by Messrs. Searle, of 

 loston ; and the following autumn I selected and separated one hun- 

 dred Merino ewes from my flock, and the rest I crossed with Saxony 

 bucks. Those hundred Merinos and their descendants I have always 

 been careful to keep by themselves, both summer and winter, and 

 have been very particular in the choice of pure blood Merino bucks 

 to put to them for breeding. The pure blood Merinos I kept marked 

 with my old Merino ear-mark, a half-penny (or notch) under each car ; 

 the progeny of those crossed between Merin6 and Saxony, with two 

 half-pennies under the right ear ; and the full-blooded Saxony with 

 two half-pennies under each ear. 



" In 1831 or 1832, finding that the Saxony crosses were reduced in 

 weight of fleece from four pounds, which was about the average of 

 mv full blood Merino flock, to two pounds ten ounces, or two pounds 

 twelve ounces per fleece, upon an average, I took out all the remain- 

 ing old Merino ewes, and put them with the descendants of the one 

 hundred formerly reserved pure bloods. I have since bred all the 

 Merino ewes with Merino bucks ; and the cross-blood ewes with cross- 

 blood bucks, selecting those with the heaviest fleeces ; and full- 

 blooded Saxony ewes with full-blooded Saxony bucks. I have been 

 very particular to keep the three kinds of ewes apart, winter and 

 summer. This I have been easily able to do, as I have ten sheep 

 yards, each connected with a shed, and well separated with a good 

 fence, and water in each; and fifteen pastures, aD well walled or 

 fenced. I particularly employ one man about my sheep, and 



