98 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



former was an animal of decidedly exceptional quali- 

 ties, I feel authorized to say that Grandee would have 

 passed for a coarsish-fleeced animal in any really fine 

 full-blood American Merino flock of that day. And 

 I believe that no one pretends that the modern im- 

 portations of French sheep exhibit any improvement 

 on Mr. Collins's in respect to quality of wool. 



But the really good sheep of the later French im- 

 portations were selected in France for a specific object 

 for the purpose of attaining the greatest amount of 

 wool of a fair medium grade of fineness. To make the 

 comparison even, we must select American Merinos 

 which have been bred and pampered for the same ob 

 ject the production of the heaviest fleece. And it is 

 my opinion that in these classes the French wool is at 

 least as good as the American. 



The only really weak point of the best French Me- 

 rino as a pure wool producing animal, is the want of 

 that hardiness which adapts it to our changeable cli- 

 mate and to our systems of husbandry. In this par- 

 ticular it is to the American Merino what the great 

 pampered Short-Horn of England is to the little, 

 hardy, black cattle of the Scotch Highlands what 

 the high-fed carnage horse, sixteen hands high ? 

 groomed and attended in a wainscoted stable, is to the 

 Sheltie that feeds among the moors and mosses, and 

 defies the tempests of the Orkneys. The French sheep 

 has not only been highly kept and housed from storm 

 and rain and dew for generations, but it has been bred 

 away from the normal type of its race. The Dishley 



"Grandee's" wool was more than double that of " Premium's," while a 

 single fibre of the former supported 84.6 grains, and "Premium's" 

 wool broke with 57.1 grains. 



