Chapter XL VIII. 



MERINOS. 



Youatt supposes the Merino sheep a derivation from the old Taren- 

 tine breed of Italy. In his book "Youatt on Sheep" he says: 



" They were theTarentine breed already described, and which had gradually spread 

 from the coast of Syria and the Black Sea, and have now reached the western extremity 

 of Europe. Many of them mingled with and improved the native breeds of Spain, while 

 others continued to exist as a distinct race, and, meeting with a climate and herbage suited 

 to them, retained their original character and value, and were the progenitors of the Merinos 

 of the present day." 



Low (1842) says: 



" Upon the whole, although authentic documents on the subject are wanting, there 

 is presumption that the sheep of Africa were employed to perfect the sheep of Spain with 

 respect to the production of wool. The Merinos exhibit certain characters which seem 

 to show them to have been derived from some country warmer than that in which they 

 were naturalized, and it was during the dominion of the African possessors of the country 

 that the wool of Spain arrived at its greatest excellence." 



Stewart in his valuable work, "The Shepherd's Manual," says: 



' ' The Spanish Merino existed as a distinct race 2,000 years ago, and the fine robes of 

 the Roman Emperors were made from the wool of Spanish flocks. There is no history 

 or tradition as to their origin which can be accepted as reasonable by any practical shep- 

 herd. It is probable, however, that the fine-wooled sheep which we read of in the an- 

 cient histories were rather the natural product of very favorable conditions of soil and 

 climate, by which inferior races were greatly improved, than of any direct efforts to breed 

 them up to a desired standard." 



That the Tarentine sheep were taken to Spain at a very early day, 

 is proved by the early writers; but there is little doubt that Spain re- 

 ceived, at the same time, accessions of African blood from the fine-wooled 

 flocks of the Barbary States on the other side of the Mediterranean. 



Columella (an ancient rural economist and author of " De Re Rus- 

 tica" a copious treatise on agriculture, in twelve parts who flourished 

 about A. D. 20 to 40), informs us that his uncle (of the same name) took 

 with him from Italy to Spain a considerable number of the Tarentine 

 sheep, and that he also secured some African rams of singular beauty 

 which had been exhibited at Rome. 



Pliny the Younger refers to the "red fleece of Boetica" an ancient 

 district of Spain in terms of the highest praise, but as the sheep of this 

 district have always retained the "red fleece" of which he speaks, and 

 as they always differed, and still differ materially, from the Merino breed, 

 it is hardly probable that these sheep supposed to be of Grecian nativ- 

 ity had any important place in the immediate origin of the Merino- 



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