FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 109 



In his instance, the guidance of a single intelligent 

 will, for upwards of half a century, produced a very 

 considerable degree of uniformity in his flock ; but 

 will any one now undertake to say that the ultimate 

 result of this long labor was an improvement on some 

 of the separate original materials of his flock ? 

 "Would any one now prefer his mixed sheep to de- 

 scendants of the Paulars, Negrettis, etc>, which he 

 chose from the flocks of Spain ? 



Crossing, howeverj between two or three families, 

 has sometimes resulted highly favorably. A con- 

 siderable majority of the older breeding flocks of 

 Vermont and New York are a cross between the 

 Paular (Rich) and Infant ado (At wood) sheep. At 

 the period that cross commenced, the first had size, 

 form, constitution, and long, thick wool. The last had 

 fineness, evenness, and style of wool, and an excess of 

 yolk. Each was strong in the points where the other 

 was most deficient ; and experience soon demonstrated 

 that the better qualities of both blended harmoniously 

 in their offspring. There is no denying that the pro- 

 duce of the cross is far superior to either of the orig- 

 inal families, as those families were when it corn- 

 had a darker complexion at their introduction here than subsequent- 

 ly, mainly owing to father's accommodating the manufacturers by breed- 

 ing in tJie contrary direction." Here we have the solution of the Es- 

 curial cross ; and now for the Saxon : "I have repeatedly heard him 

 say his Merino ewes sheared about four pounds till he was persuaded 

 by Mr. Shepherd [Col. James Shepherd, of Northampton, Mass.], the 

 great manufacturer of that day, to get some Saxons to cross with, 

 as the finest wool was to be in the most demand in future ; and as re- 

 peatedly heard him end his allusion to the subject by declaring that if 

 he had thrown his pocket-book, with the price of the Saxons into the 

 Connecticut river, as he was crossing for the purchase of them, he 

 should be better off." 



