SHEEP. 999 



wards. The earliest lambs are dropped from January 15th to 

 February 15th ; the ewes are well sheltered and fed to improve 

 their condition, so that they generally yean fine, strong, growthy 

 lambs. When the latter are a few weeks old they are allowed 

 access to a separate apartment, and are fed bran, meal, and 

 ground oats in troughs. They generally bring four dollars and 

 fifty cents to five dollars per head when they will weigh thirty 

 or forty pounds gross. If not too aged the ewes are retained 

 for further service ; if they are, they are fattened for the fall 

 market. A South -Down ram generally costs from ten dol- 

 lars to twenty dollars. They are preferred to the Cots wold, 

 Lincoln, or middle -wool rams, because their lambs, though 

 smaller, fatten better, have better hams, and produce a mar- 

 bled flesh. 



The celebrated Merino stud-flocks of Vermont and Ohio are 

 a specialty upon which it is not necessary to enter. The sys- 

 tems of the Mississippi Valley and its tributaries are based on 

 Indian corn, timothy, hay, and fodder. The size of flocks in- 

 creases as we go West. In Western New York, Pennsylvania 

 and Virginia, Ohio and Indiana, Merinos and their grades pre- 

 vail, of established breeds, though in the southern half of this 

 region there are still immense numbers of the old natives, or 

 " mountain rangers," whose bald heads denote a mongrel Leicester 

 blood coming from Virginia. The Pan-handle and adjacent regions 

 still have some large flocks yielding the superfine or electoral 

 wools. Washington County, Pennsylvania, is the home of the 

 Black-tops or Delaine Merinos. Western Pennsylvania and Vir- 

 ginia and Southern Ohio grow a plainer sheep and a longer sta- 

 ple than Vermont, Western New York, and Northern Ohio. 

 Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio sheep are accounted the 

 truest representatives of the American Merino, and their wool 

 has long been quoted highest in the Eastern markets. But in 

 Ohio of late years the breeding of very wrinkly and yolky sheep 

 to cross on the coarse Mexicans of the West has somewhat de- 

 based the staple as happened in Vermont from a similar cause 

 which, together with frauds and carelessness in the preparation 

 of the clips for market, has hurt the good name of Ohio wool. 



