SECRETARY'S REPORT. 129 



we except the few skilful and successful breeders of Vermont 

 and othep sections of our own country. 



Three royal sheep-folds were established in the Saxon Switz- 

 erland, as the beautiful and picturesque mountainous region 

 along the Elbe above Dresden is called, and annual sales of 

 breeding rams were instituted as a means of improving the 

 stock of the country, while the necessity of a constant resort to 

 the original source being early recognized, resulted in a great 

 uniformity of type throughout the flocks. 



The quality of the Saxon Merino wool is too well known to 

 need description ; the weight is not generally large, but the 

 wool has a good average length, the staple is strong and 

 fine, and the size pretty uniform on various parts of the body. 

 In the form of the body the high-bred Saxon Merino is superior 

 to most of the types of this animal found elsewhere. The 

 enormous horns, the sharp foreheads, the dewlaps and folds of 

 the neck, the length and size of the feet, the straightness of the 

 chest, the projection of the shoulders and the length of the 

 sides, which are serious defects in many classes of Merinos, and 

 which no doubt contribute much to predispose them to diseases 

 which carry off many, have been to a large extent corrected in 

 the Saxon flocks. The head is smaller and more conical, the 

 neck is short and free from folds, the skin is quite tight, the 

 chest good, the shoulders well squared above, the sides round, 

 the body cylindrical, the legs not too long. 



It will be seen that the form of body indicated above gives 

 evidence of a better adaptation to mutton-producing qualities 

 than the general character of Merinos would lead us to expect, 

 and I must confess that my impressions of what a Merino was 

 capable of doing in this respect were somewhat changed by the 

 full and well-rounded forms of the sheep in the Saxon, Silesian 

 and Rambouillet classes, at the exhibition, and the fine flocks of 

 these animals which I saw grazing on their native pastures. In 

 point of fineness of wool, probably the flocks of Prussia are 

 nearly, if not quite equal to those of Saxony, but they did not 

 strike me as quite so well made as a whole, while the size is not 

 generally quite so large, owing perhaps to the poorer pastures, 

 and a want of that short and sweet mountain feed, more com- 

 mon farther south. Still, the spirit of improvement has long 

 reigned among the flock-masters of Prussia as well as else. 

 17* 



