FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 97 



deduction is, the smaller the sheep the larger the pro- 

 portionable surface. 



The popular impression, that American wool is finer 

 and better than French wool, is, in my judgment, 

 based on an unequal and unfair mode of comparison. 

 The best American wool is unquestionably finer, 

 evener, softer, more glossy and more " stylish" than 

 any French wool brought into our country. I have 

 not a doubt either that it is denser in its substance 

 and stronger in proportion to its diameter. My prize 

 ram which I offered to show against Mr. Collins's im- 

 ported " Grandee,"* not only excelled, but, in sports- 

 men's phrase, distanced the latter in fineness, trueness, 

 and soundness of wooLf Granting frankly that the 



* This offer was made in 1844, extending to a ram and a pen of ewes 

 (Mr. 0. to name amount sweepstakes), in consequence of the offensive 

 and purely unprovoked attacks made for months in succession on our 

 American Merinos by an able public writer, who, at the same time, 

 warmly championed the French sheep. Now that Mr. Collins is dead, 

 I feel bound to say that I have no idea he countenanced those attacks. 

 Indeed, I believe that he subsequently said as much to me. But en- 

 gaged, perhaps, in his ocean-steamer plans, and in his very large busi- 

 ness transactions, he probably gave but little attention to the subject. 

 At the time I thought his suffering these attacks so long to appear 

 without public or private disclaimer, authorized any owner of American 

 Merinos to make the above challenge. He did not accept it, and the 

 sheep sent to meet his were easily victorious over all other competitors 

 at the State Fair. 



f The diameter and trueness of their wool were tested with an ad- 

 mirable compound Chevalier microscope, by Ebenezer Emmons, M. D., 

 one of the State Geologists, and that one having the agricultural sur- 

 vey of the State under his supervision. His skill and accuracy in 

 such gttosi-scientific manipulations will be questioned by no well in- 

 formed gentleman. See his original statements in American Quarterly 

 Journal of Agriculture, 1845, and also in Sheep Husbandry in the 

 South, p. 135, aria 1 a reply containing further explanations, in American 

 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, 1846, p. 290. The diameter of 



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