CHAPTER XXVII 

 THE RAMBOUILLET 



History. The Rambouillet, a pure descendant of the Spanish 

 Merino, originated in France. In 1785, Louis XVI, being im- 

 pressed by the importance of wool and wool manufactures in the 

 industrial growth of his country, asked the King of Spain, as a per- 

 sonal favor, for " permission to import from the celebrated Spanish 

 flocks a flock of sheep with the highest quality of fine wool." His 

 request was granted, and in October, 1786, 318 ewes and 41 rams, 

 representing the best that M. Gilbert, the French agent, could find, 

 were quartered in their new home on the government farm at Ram- 

 bouillet, near Paris. Henceforth, these sheep were to take the name 

 of this farm, which was formerly the property of the Marquis 

 de Rambouillet, the famous Savant of the time of Louis the XIV, 

 but taken over by the government during the French Revolution 

 and ever since maintained for experimental purposes. 



With the possible exception of the Leicesters, no other well- 

 established breed of sheep has been developed with as definite a 

 purpose in view, and beyond any question the progress of any other 

 breed has not been so faithfully recorded as that of the Rambouillet 

 in its original home. From 1786 to the present time the carefully 

 kept records of the French flock have been preserved without a 

 break. It is only by taking into consideration the various changes in 

 directors, periods of discouragement and depression, and especially 

 the recklessness and confusion of the Napoleonic wars, that one can 

 realize what it has meant to keep these records. 



The purpose uppermost in the minds of those who directed the 

 making of the Rambouillet was to produce a fairly large, robust 

 sheep yielding a fine fleece of good weight and a carcass of desirable 

 mutton. In other words, they aimed at a dual-purpose sheep. In 

 certain periods the emphasis seemed to be laid somewhat more 

 strongly on the fleece than on the carcass, and in others the emphasis 

 seemed to be reversed, but the net result has been a sheep suitable 

 for both wool and mutton. It is doubtful, however, whether the 

 carcass was ever developed quite so much for mutton in the gov- 

 ernment flock as it was in some of the privately owned flocks first 

 of France and later of Germany. 



208 



