SHEEP. 227 



cauls, and furnish meat of fine grain and well marbled. The 

 best of these sbdcp are Grade Merinos, usually wethers, whose 

 wool has paid well for their keeping until they have arrived at 

 full maturity. They compare well with the mountain sheep of 

 Scotland — tiie favorite of the English epicure, who sends his 

 own over-fattened mutton to market, for those who have a less 

 delicate palate than himself. The class of sheep of which we 

 are speaking are not only profitable to the producer from their 

 heavy fleeces and the small amount of food which they consume, 

 but they give a larger return to the feeder than any others. 



John Johnston, Esq., of Seneca County, New York, one of 

 the most careful and successful of American farmers, stated in a 

 communication to the " Boston Cultivator," last winter, that after 

 an experience of many years, he had found fine-woolled wethers 

 the most profitable sheep that he could feed for the market. 

 Thomas J. Field, Esq., of Northfield, in this State, an excellent 

 judge of cattle and sheep, a most systematic farmer, and an 

 extensive feeder, has informed us that this is the conclusion to 

 which his long experience has brought him. The sheep referred 

 to by these gentlemen are, undoubtedly, a cross between the 

 Merino and the common native sheep of the section, composed 

 of the various coarse-woolled breeds which have been distributed 

 throughout the country. And we have ourselves seen in Ver- 

 mont, a flock of sheep, the result of a cross between some grade 

 Oxford Down ewes and a superior Merino buck, which for 

 evenness of form, compactness, a proper bony structure, quality 

 of flesh, and thrift, combined with great weight and fineness of 

 fleece, as well as an even distribution of wool over the whole 

 body, can hardly be excelled. The cross in this case was 

 evidently a good one. 



The same experiment has been tried with Merinos and South 

 Downs, with marked success. Mr. Randall, in his Sheep 

 Husbandry, gives an account of his own experience in this 

 matter. He says : " Finding it difficult to obtain Down ewes 

 of the proper quality, I obtained a small, compact, exceedingly 

 beautiful, fine and even-fleeced Down ram, and crossed him 

 with a few large-sized Merino ewes. The half blood ewes were 

 bred to a Merino ram, and also their female progeny, and soon. 

 The South Down form, and disposition to take on fat manifested 

 itself, to a perceptible extent, in every generation which I bred, 



