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ampton, and who purchased my Merino wool for several years, told me 

 that the superfine broadcloths made from my wool, handled softer than 

 did those from the best imported Spanish wool he could purchase. 

 Where the Merino has been bred with attention and care, the wool has 

 not deteriorated in any other country beside England, and the deteriora- 

 tion there has unquestionably been owing to the uncommon humidity of 

 that climate. 



You next inquire, what is my particular mode of management. I at 

 an early day became satisfied, that if the Merino could not thrive under 

 a similar management to that which our good farmers afforded to the 

 native breeds, they would never become popular in this country. I 

 therefore adopted a management similar to theirs, and happily found 

 that they throve under it beyond my most sanguine expectations. At- 

 tached to my barns I have sheds connected with large yards ; in those 

 yards I place my racks, and carry out the hay and put into them morn- 

 ing and evening for their food ; at noon I give them a gill or a half pint 

 of oats a head in troughs ; if a half pint of oats is given a little less hay 

 is fed out, if a gill a little more ; about two pounds of good hay with a 

 half pint of oats per head per diem, will keep them in good case, or 

 about two pounds and a half of hay with a gill of oats. When I have 

 an abundance of hay, I give no oats, but feed out about three pounds of 

 hay per day, at three times, morning, noon, and night, although I think 

 it makes but little difference whether this quantity is fed out three times 

 a day or twice, for it must be remarked, that when sheep are in pasture 

 they rarely feed from ten till three or four o'clock in the afternoon. I 

 leave the doors of my sheds open, and let the sheep go in and out when 

 they please. My sheds are occasionally strawed to prevent their be- 

 coming very filthy, and there is no waste in so doing, as all the best of 

 the straw the sheep will eat before laying upon it. 



I am careful to have water both in my yards and pastures, as I think 

 water essential to their health as well as thrift. If the hay was well 

 salted when put into the mow, no salt will be necessary ; if not, they 

 will require salting weekly. My rule is, to take them up in the fall 

 when the grass ceases to be nutritious, owing to severe frosts, which is 

 ordinarily about the 25th of November, and never let them go out of 

 their yards until I turn them to pasture in the spring, which is commonly 

 about the 25th April to the 5th of May, according as the grass is more 

 or less advanced. Some attention ought to be paid to the ewes in the 

 lambing season, and in cold easterly storms, or in heavy rains they 



