FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 73 



the legs and neck, and narrow in the carcass as the 

 Spanish sheep measured by Petri, but they were 

 equally remote from the compactness and substance 

 of the American sheep, whose measurements are sub- 

 joined to Petri's table, or of the family I shall de- 

 scribe as No. 3. Their skins were thin, loose, and 

 usually exhibited but few corrugations, and these were 

 confined to the ram and to the neck of that animal. 

 They had but a small amount of external gum, and 

 were accordingly quite white whiter than any 

 Spanish sheep imported into this country except the 

 Escurial. They had little wool below the eyes or 

 below the knees and hocks. Their wool was long, 

 but shorter on the belly, and of medium thickness. 

 On a portion of them it divided about the shoulders 

 and fore parts into those small pointed tufts which in- 

 dicate thin wool. The fleece was very fine, very even, 

 and opened on a high tinted, rosy skin, with a bril- 

 liancy and style which almost rivalled the Saxon. The 

 yolk was thin, colorless, and easily liberated in washing. 

 I have never seen any other Merino wool so closely 

 resembling Saxon, or of so profitable a character to 

 the manufacturer. Altogether the sheep bore an ob- 

 vious likeness to the Spanish Escurial, and I have no 

 doubt that Mr. Jarvis gave a preference to rams of 

 that variety while he was forming his mixed family. 

 They were, however, a heavier fleeced, and for this 

 country, a more valuable sheep than those of the 

 Royal cabana of Spain. 



2. I take up these next as the descendants of an 

 older importation than No. 3, and I am almost in- 

 clined to dub them the American Infantados. They 

 were bred from rams and ewes of Colonel Humphreys' 



