84 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



fleeces, &c., &c. It would be difficult to give the 

 characteristics of these various importations of sheep, 

 as there has been so great a difference in them, 

 they having been of all kinds and qualities, from 

 good to very inferior. Some of them have been of 

 large size, were well proportioned, being short in the 

 leg, broad in the chest, had strong hardy constitu- 

 tions, were easily kept, and always in good condi- 

 tion. "With ordinary care and on ordinary feed, they 

 sheared heavy fleeces, and their wool was even and of 

 good quality, while others of them, and by far the 

 greatest number, were the opposite of these in all the 

 different qualities mentioned, some having been the 

 discarded and refused sheep of good flocks, and others 

 were grade sheep from flocks having no reputation as 

 being of strictly pure blood ; but these kinds of sheep 

 were bought up by speculators at low prices, brought 

 to this country and sold on the reputation and credit 

 of the better class of French sheep that had been 

 previously imported. They were long in the leg and 

 long in the neck ; were slab-sided, thin-visaged, gaunt, 

 thin through the shoulders, narrow in the chest ; 

 their constitutions so puny and delicate that it was 

 impossible to keep them in fair condition even with 

 the best possible care and attention ; their fleeces were 

 light, their wool uneven in quality, some being quite 

 too fine for profit (because too light), while others 

 would be exceedingly coarse and filled with jar. In 

 France, as in this country, there are all descriptions 

 and grades of sheep, and it does not follow, as is sup- 

 posed by many, that all that have been imported 

 from there are of the same kind and quality, even if 

 called by the same name. 



" In answer to your inquiry as to the weight of 

 fleece of the French sheep and their live weight, I 

 can only reply by giving the result of my own flock. 

 My French rams have generally sheared from 18 to 

 24 pounds of an even year's growth, and unwashed ; 



