SHEEP. 217 



fed. They are managed in a somewhat primitive and pastoral 

 manner, as are the sheep of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, to 

 which we have just referred ; and, as they are chiefly kept for 

 their wool, some knowledge of their quality and habits may he 

 interesting to those who believe in the profits of this important 

 article. 



The most universally diffused of these breeds is the Spanish 

 Merino. These sheep seem to have been known at a very early 

 period, and were orignally of several varieties, whose fleeces 

 differed in color and quality. The finest were the Andalu- 

 sians, descended from the Tarentine breed of Italy, which were 

 brought into Spain in A. D. 41, by Columella, and mixed with 

 some valuable and beautiful African rams. From this time to 

 the thirteenth century, wool growing and woollen manufactures 

 increased largely in Spain ; and there were at one time, in 

 Seville alone, 10,000 looms, whose fine fabrics were exported 

 to all parts of Europe as well as to Africa, and were a source 

 of much national wealth. During the reign of Ferdinand V. 

 and Philip III., nearly a million of the woollen weavers were 

 driven from Spain, and manufactures declined ; but the farmers 

 still fed their flocks, the blood of which they preserved with 

 great care. 



The Merinos, which constitute nearly all the sheep of Spain, 

 are divided into those which are confined to one district, and 

 those which migrate from pasture to pasture as the seasons 

 change. 



The Spanish Merinos seem to have been used by the most 

 eminent agriculturists of Europe for the improvement of most 

 breeds found on the continent ; although an attempt, made in 

 1787, to introduce them into England by George III. seems to 

 have failed. Experiments were also made with them by Mr. 

 Coke, Sir Joseph Banks, Lord Somerville, and others, but not 

 with much success. Mr. Youatt observes : " In Great Britain, 

 where the system of artificial feeding is carried to so great a 

 degree of perfection — where the sheep is so early and so profit- 

 ably brought to the market — that breed, however it may ulti- 

 mately increase the value of the wool, can never be adopted 

 whicii is deficient, as the Merinos undetiiably are, in the prin- 

 ciple of early maturity and general propensity to fatten." The 

 Massachusetts farmer will bear in mind the objections here 



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