222 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



The amount of food which the Merino consumes is compar- 

 atively small ; the amount of wool which he produces is com- 

 paratively large ; and his hardy constitution and long life, he 

 teing much superior in this respect to the heavier coarse-woolled 

 breeds, give him ample time and opportunity to repay, with 

 large interest, any outlay which may be made upon him. 



Now consider the question of food. Take any piece of pas- 

 ture land and it will undoubtedly sustain three Merinos to two 

 Leicesters or Cotswolds — more likely two to one — estimating 

 the amount of food consumed to be in proportion to the weight 

 of the animals, and if the pasture is light it will probably sup- 

 port the Merinos Weft, while the Leicesters can hardly live 

 upon it. The Meririffs will yield, according to the average of 

 the best flocks in New England, fifteen pounds of wool ; the 

 coarse-woolled sheep will yield twelve pounds. Fine wool is 

 usually worth fifty cents per pound, while coarse wool brings 

 forty cents. We shall get, at these prices, from the land fed by 

 Merinos, seven dollars and fifty cents' worth of wool ; and from 

 that fed by Leicesters, four dollars and eighty cents' worth ; 

 and taking the unusual prices which now rule, in which coarse 

 wool brings sixty cents, while fine wool brings fifty, we have 

 seven dollars and twenty cents as the produce of coarse wool, 

 and seven dollars and fifty cents as the produce of fine wool. In 

 one case, two dollars and twenty cents in favor of fine wool, 

 and in the other very unusual case, thirty cents in favor of fine 

 wool, at the present reversed prices. Tlie calculation which 

 we have made here is based wholly upon summer feeding ; but 

 we think the deductions drawn from it will apply still more 

 strongly to winter feeding, in which our farmers are more 

 deeply interested. We are satisfied that the cost of feeding a 

 heavy mutton-sheep of almost any English breed is nearly 

 twice as much as that of feeding a Merino, granting, of course, 

 that the heavy sheep is to be kept in thriving condition. We 

 have compared the Merinos with Cotswolds and Leicesters, and 

 we might have added Oxford Downs and Shropshires, as these 

 are really the mutton-sheep which carry fleece enough to entitle 

 them to the name of wool-producers. 



The question will at once arise — whether the amount of 

 mutton produced by the various breeds of coarse English sheep 

 will counterbalance their deficiency in wool, as compared with 



