FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 157 



is not a drove that sweeps from the plains of the north- 

 west that does not exhibit a sprinkling of this blood ; 

 and if they are merely grass-fed, the twenty fattest, 

 and least travel-worn sheep in the drove will usually 

 be found those which, by a little darker tinge of their 

 wool, and its greater thickness and " squareness on 

 the ends," betray more Merino blood. 



Those people who pay such prices in our cities for 

 South Down lambs in February and March, are not 

 perhaps aware they are paying for grade Merinos. 



Ewes having no Merino blood do not allow them- 

 selves to be impregnated (that is, generally and with 

 regularity) early enough in autumn to produce these 

 lambs. The grade Merino ewes are bred to the South 

 Down ram, which gives the offspring additional size, 

 and the dark-colored legs, which satisfy fashionable 

 purchasers.* 



* Samuel Thome, Esq., of Dutchess Co., one of the most intelligent 

 and successful breeders in our State, writes me on this subject: 



" The sheep purchased for breeding market lambs are usually the 

 ordinary Ohio Merinos, sometimes bought from the droves as they 

 arrive, and sometimes from the farmers who have kept them over one 

 season. I always prefer the latter, the difference in price alone caus- 

 ing me to purchase the former. "When selecting them, the point of the 

 greatest importance is to get good milkers, that governing the choice 

 more than any thing else, as the object is to get prime early lambs. 

 When there has been a chance to select ewes with a cross of either 

 of the mutton breeds, I have always availed myself of it, though the 

 difference in price between them and the ordinary ones is generally 

 too great too make it as profitable. All things being equal, large 

 sheep are of course preferable to small ones. Ewes with a strong 

 tincture of Merino.blood take the ram with more certainty early in 

 the season than those deeply crossed with the mutton breeds. It is, 

 however, no advantage to have the lambs come too early, as they do 

 not bring so large a price before as they do in the regular season. My 

 own ewes are turned with a South Down ram the 1st of September, 



