120 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



now tall, narrow ones, &c., &c., will never attain 

 that degree of uniformity which is essential to a de- 

 cently bred flock. 



There is another kind of crossing between varieties 

 of the same, breed for a different object than the one 

 I have discussed, viz : to bring one of the varieties so 

 crossed to the standard of the other. In this no mid- 

 dle line between the varieties is aimed at, but to give 

 the offspring the characteristics of the best one by 

 crossing steadily towards the best one. I regard 

 this as strictly legitimate breeding. For example, if 

 a flock master has one hundred ewes of Mr. Jarvis's 

 family, described under No. 1, and wishes to convert 

 them into such sheep as those described under No. 2 

 or No. 3, it is his true course then to bred them 

 steadily to rams of the preferred flodk, and so far as 

 possible to those of the same individual character. If 

 the Merino blood is absolutely pure on both sides, the 

 assimilation will usually go on pretty rapidly and 

 surely. Many former owners of good Saxons even, 

 who had judgment to select proper American Merino 

 rams, and who have held on in a steady line, now 

 own flocks superior in actual value to very many 

 pure American Merino flocks. 



I have alluded in a preceding note to the former 

 admirable Saxon ^,nd Spanish flock of James M. 

 Ellis, Esq, of Onondaga called Saxon in the wool 

 market, but built up on an early Spanish Merino 

 foundation.* Fifty ewes were taken from this flock 

 in 1852, the fleeces of which weighed from 3J to 3 



* Gen. Ellis (father of James M- Ellis) purchased several sheep of 

 Col. Humphreys, and kept a ram and ewe for his own use. Their 

 blood mingles in that of the present flock. 



