THE SHEEP. 173 



possessino; so many curves as the rrjina, occupies the belly, and the 

 quarters and thighs, down to the stifle joint. The terceira^ or wool of 

 the third quality, is found on the head, the throat, the lower part of the 

 neck, and the slioulders, terminating; at the elbow : the wool yielded by 

 the legs, and reaching from the stitle to a little below the hock, forms a 

 part of the same division. A small quantity of very inferior wool is 

 procured from the tuft that grows on the forehead and cheeks — from the 

 tail, and from the legs below the hock. 



The Spanish wool continues to be highly valued by the manufacturer; 

 and the Spanish breed of sheep will be regarded with interest as the 

 improver of t'le best old short-wooled ones, and the parent of a new race, 

 spreading throngh every quarter of the world, and with which, so far as 

 the Heece is concerned, none of the old breeds can be for a moment 

 compared. 



Saxon Merinos. — This breed is the result of transferring, nearly a cen- 

 tury ago, the best Spanish sheep into Saxony, where they appeared to 

 thrive better than in their native region. 



Very great care is taken by the Saxon sheep-master in the selection 

 of the lambs which are destined to be saved in order to keep up the flock : 

 there is no part of the globe in which such unremitting attention is paid 

 to the flock. Mr. Charles Howard, in a letter with which he favored the 

 author, says, that "when the lambs are weaned, each in his turn is 

 placed upon a table, that his wool and form may be minutely observed." 

 The finest are selected for breeding, and receive a first mark. When 

 they are one year old, and prior to shearing them, another close examina- 

 tion of those previously marked takes place : those in which no defect 

 can be found, receive a second mark, and the rest are condemned. A 

 few months after, they in like manner receive a third mark, when the 

 slightest blemish causes a rejection of the animal. 



The utmost care is also taken in the housing and feeding of their flocks, 

 evidently aiming rather at a fine staple of wool, than a hardy race of 

 sheep. Mr. Carr, a large sheep-owner in Germany thus describes their 

 management and its effects : 



They are always housed at night, even in summer, except in the very 

 finest weather, when they are sometimes folded in the distant fallows, 

 but never taken to pasture until the dew is oflf the grass. In the winter 

 they are kept within doors altogether, and are fed with a small quantity 

 of sound hay, and every variety of straw, which has not suffered from 

 wet, and which is varied at each feed ; they pick it over carefully, eating 

 the finer parts, and any giaiu that may have been left by the threshers. 

 Abundance of good water to drink, and rock-salt in their cribs, are 



indispensables They cannot thrive in a damp climate, and it 



is quite necessary that they should have a wide range of dry and hilly 

 pasture of short and not over-nutritious herbage. If allowed to feed on 

 swampy or marshy ground, even once or twice in autumn, they are sure 

 to die of liver complaint in the following spring. If they are permitted 

 to eat wet grass, or exposed frequently to rain, they disappear by hund 

 reds with consumption. In these countries it is found the higher bred 

 the sheep is, especially the Escurial, the more tender. 



The American Saxon sheep have been so largely intermixed with 



