994 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



prepotency, and a hardiness which have projected it into other 

 climates and other civilizations, where the constantly increasing 

 density of population created a demand for meat and a long 

 staple, which the Merino could not always furnish to the best 

 advantage. Hence the claim of the advocates of the English 

 breeds that they are the accompaniment and support of a higher 

 civilization is not perhaps wholly unjust. 



Still, after the most liberal concessions are made to its great 

 competitors, the Merino undoubtedly holds the first rank yet, 

 both in number and in economic importance. Notwithstanding 

 a century of acclimation and wonting to Anglo-Saxon thriftiness 

 in farming, the Merino still retains many of the characteristics 

 stamped on it by two thousand years of Oriental unthrift. It 

 is an industrious and roving feeder, impatient of restraint, lov- 

 ing nothing so well as the hilltops and wide expanses. To sum 

 it all in a word, the English breeds are the sheep for the small 

 farm, and the Merino for the poor farm. On the great plains of 

 Texas, California, and Australia the Merino returns with satis- 

 faction and with profit to the owner to its habits in Spain, which 

 were more or less migratory. 



In considering which breed would be most profitable for 

 himself the farmer must take account, first, of the qualities of 

 the sheep themselves; second, of his farm and surroundings. 

 No manufacturer's advice is likely to be of much value, for he 

 will almost invariably counsel the production of that class of 

 wool he himself requires. Neither need the flock-master debate 

 long over the particular class of wool he shall produce with ab- 

 stract reference to its selling qualities (not, however, that any 

 one should engage in the growth of a coarse carpet wool which 

 can be grown profitably only in a semi-barbarous society), for 

 in these days of rapid transportation it may be set down as 

 an axiom that every civilized country furnishes somewhere a 

 good market for every kind of wool. And wool will keep until 

 the location of that market can be found. 



All sheep do best in a climate which has sufficient equable 

 rainfall to keep the fleece mellow, not subject to extreme 

 changes, especially changes from dampness to severe cold, and 



