82 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



which would produce an average of more than 5 Ibs. 

 of well washed prime Merino wool. But from these, 

 100 could be drawn, which, subdivided into a couple 

 of flocks, given ; ' the range" of an entire farm in sum- 

 mer and well kept in winter, would yield a pound 

 more of wool a head. The heaviest fleeced 50 of this 

 hundred, bought by a breeder, protected from all 

 storms and pampered for show, would yield nearly 7 Ibs. 

 of washed wool a head, and a few scattering ones from 

 8 to even 9 Ibs. Should one of the very heaviest 

 fleeced ewes of the flock fail to have a lamb at two or 

 three years old, and become very fat, she might, pro- 

 duce 10 Ibs. of wool the succeeding year. Prime rams 

 unwashed and housed from storms from the middle 

 of August to shearing* produce from 18 to 20 Ibs. ; 

 and occasionally, if large and very highly kept, two, 

 three, and even five pounds more. 



Introduction of tbe Frenck Merino. 



When the American Merino started on his second 

 and rapid march of improvement, he soon found a 

 new foreign competitor for public favor in the field. 



Mr. D. C. Collins's importation of French Merinos 

 in 1840, has already been alluded to in the extracts 

 I have published from Mr. Taintor's letter. These 

 sheep found a warm admirer and advocate in Anthony 

 Benezet Allen, the very able editor of the American 

 Agriculturist, and they were consequently brought 

 rapidly into public notice. Mr. Allen attended Mr. 

 Collins's shearing in 1843. He considered the wool 



* It has become so customary not to wash the best stock rams, and 

 to treat them as above mentioned, that I am compelled to give their 

 weight of fleeces under such circumstances. 



