SUEEP-FAEMING. 51 



decidedly of opinion that, under circumstances, we may 

 expect the best results, and the speediest, from a persistent 

 use of rams, of such special type of the Merino family as 

 will most effectually correct the defects of the majority of 

 the flocks. 



Of the Merino there are several distinct types created 

 from one parent stock, by selection and treatment, and 

 many subdivisions of the same. 



The principal are the Spanish (original), the various 

 German, French, and English branches. 



The exquisite Prussian Silesian Merino. — A perfect 

 animal in its class, with a wool marvellously fine, long, 

 and soft, a something to see to comprehend its full beauty ; 

 but, alas ! unsuited to us for general pvu-poses. Destroy 

 its purity of blood, ' Mestizar it,' and you have relatively 

 nothing. Only under the highest degree of breeding, 

 intelligence, and minute care, could such a breed hold its 

 way. 



The Saxon Electoral Negretti, the Ramhouillet, and the 

 half-breed between the Ramhouillet and Negretti. — This 

 last let us at once discard. The one has spoiled the dis- 

 tinctive qualities, or type, respectively, of the parent 

 breeds. As rams they are mere mongrels. In all cases, the 

 rams used must have a fixity of type, and persistence of 

 the same blood through several generations. Thus, while 

 the half-bred ram between pure EambouiUet and pure 

 Negretti is not admissible in good practice, on the other 

 hand, if you take Negretti ewes, cross them with imperials, 

 and continue to breed out of the ewe progeny, using 

 always Eambouillct rams- — in the course of three or four 

 generations there will be established the requisite fixity of 

 type and blood to render the rams so produced desirable 

 stock. 



The Saxon Electoral Negretti.' — Beautifully true in 



e2 



