228 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



and the wool of many of the sheej) in the third generation, (|^ 

 blood Merino and ^ blood South Down) was very even, and 

 equal to medium, and some of them to good medium Merino. 

 Their fleeces were lighter than the full-blood Merino, but 

 increased in weight with each succeeding' cross back towards 

 the latter. Their mutton of the first, and even of the second 

 cross, was of beautiful flavor — and it retained some of the supe- 

 riority of South Down mutton to the last." 



An experiment, tried by Mr. Randall, of crossing the Merino 

 and Leicester did not succeed so well. He produced a " showy 

 and profitable sheep, and well calculated to please the mass of 

 farmers." But he says : " Their fleeces lacked evenness — their 

 thighs remaining disproportionately coarse and hairy ; and 

 making up my mind that this would always be a tendency of 

 the sheep of this cross, I abandoned them without further 

 experiment." The cross was evidently too violent. 



Li some parts of Massachusetts, and in the other New Eng- 

 land States, especially Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, 

 Merino blood has been introduced, with the same result as fol- 

 lowed Mr. Randall's cross with the South Downs. And while 

 we admire the public spirit and judgment, which have induced 

 leading agriculturists to introduce the various breeds of heavy 

 English sheep into our State, we cannot but believe that the 

 sheep husbandry of Massachusetts will be greatly advanced, 

 when it is understood, that for our soil, and climate and markets, 

 a breed of sheep whose fleece has been improved by Merino 

 blood, and whose mutton is of the size and quality which our 

 pastures can produce, is the most profitable for a very large 

 proportion of our farmers. 



There are many matters relating to sheep husbandry upon 

 which the limits of this report will not allow us to dwell. The 

 care of sheep in winter, the best modes of feeding, the time and 

 mode of shearing, the care of lambs, treatment of disease, <fec., 

 are matters to be learned by experience, and from rules laid 

 down in the many elaborate treatises which are within the reach 

 of every farmer. The beneficial effects of sheep on pasture 

 land, about which there is great difference of opinion in various 

 iparts of the State, we simply refer to as a subject of vast inter- 

 est to the farmers of this county, where pastures arc annually 

 deterioratins: for the want of some economical mode of cultiva- 



