FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 83 



quite equal to the best of that of Spain. It opened 

 with a brilliant creamy color on a rich, soft, pink 

 skin, which was excessively loose and corrugated. 

 The sheep were of fine form, he thought of excellent 

 constitution, and from one-tenth to one-fifth larger in 

 carcass than American Merinos. " Grandee," the 

 choicest imported ram,* had, at three years old in 

 France, sheared 14: Ibs. unwashed wool. In 1842 his 

 unwashed fleece weighed 12f pounds. He was 3 feet 

 8-J- inches long " from the setting on of the horns to 

 the end of the rump," and weighed, in fair condition, 

 about 150 pounds. Mr. Allen found the average 

 weight of the ewes' unwashed fleeces in 1843 to be 

 6 Ibs. 9 oz. 



Mr. Taintor's importations commenced in 1846. 

 Mr. Allen has kindly furnished me with a list of 

 those also made by other persons, but, on second 

 thought, I have concluded not to give it. To do so 

 without discrimination would be placing honorable 

 persons in an unpleasant association, and I do not 

 feel called upon,,without greater necessity, to specify 

 individual frauds which have mostly worked their 

 own cure. 



Mr. Taintor, on the point of leaving home, refer- 

 red me for particulars concerning his imported sheep, 

 to a large proprietor of them, Mr. John D. Patterson, 

 of Westfield, ~N. Y. That gentleman has furnished 

 me the following statements : 



"Your second inquiry calls for the characteris- 

 tics of these imported sheep, weight of single year's 



* He was used as a sire ram at Eambouillet, and Mr. Collins was 

 obliged to wait until he was thus used the year that h brought him 

 out. 



