CHAPTER XXIV 

 BREEDS OF THE WOOL TYPE 



ALL of the existing wool breeds have descended from the Merinos 

 of Spain, hence wool sheep and Merino sheep are practically synony- 

 mous terms. Outside of Spain, distinct types have been developed in 

 Germany, France, Australia, and North America. 



Origin of Merinos. There is no definite information as to 

 just how the Merino came into existence, but it is thought that it 

 was developed from sheep imported into Spain from Italy and 

 Northern Africa centuries ago. There were two great groups of 

 Merinos in Spain, the Fstantes, or stationary flocks, and the Trail - 

 shumantes, or travelling flocks. The latter, owned by the nobility 

 and the clergy, outnumbered the former four to one and were con- 

 sidered the more important. They were maintained in very large 

 flocks numbering into the thousands, and they were handled by 

 shepherds who herded them over a range of two or three hundred 

 miles, so that they obtained their living almost entirely by grazing. 

 The owners of these flocks did not make a practice of going to out- 

 side sources for their breeding stock ; hence each flock possessed a 

 type peculiarly its own. Yet all of them were maintained for the 

 distinct purpose of producing fine wool. 



Merinos in Various Countries. When other countries took up 

 Merinos they drew from various flocks in Spain, and in many cases 

 Spanish types were commingled to breed the kind of sheep most de- 

 sired. In Saxony, Germany, close attention was given to fineness 

 of fleece, the result being the Saxony Merino which possessed wool 

 finer than any produced by the Spanish flocks. In France attention 

 was given to size and form in the hope of producing both mutton 

 and fine wool; the result was the Rambouillet, now famous as a 

 large mutton-type Merino. In Australia three types were developed : 

 one comparatively small and growing very fine wool impregnated 

 with much yolk or oil; another a large, robust sheep having coarser 

 and longer wool and much less yolk; and the third a type midway 

 between the two already mentioned. In North America emphasis 

 was first placed upon weight, length and fineness of fleece, the result 

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