132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



becoming passionately fond of it. Exhibitions were held 

 annually, first organized by the Imperial Society of Agriculture 

 for Moravia and Silesia, at Brunn. The improvement of 

 Merinos, under the stimulus of the excitement and profit, was 

 carried to the highest degree of perfection, and these countries 

 soon took the first rank of nations producing fine wools, and 

 their fleeces soon compared in fineness and beauty with the 

 finest products in Europe. The revenues of the country, both 

 for wool and in sales of breeding animals, became very large. 



The peasants who kept the common sheep of the country, 

 soon began to improve them by crosses with Merino bucks, and 

 the production of short and coarse wool greatly diminished. 

 But the Zakels, on the side of the Carpathians, still maintained 

 their ground and exist in considerable numbers to this day. 

 The butter used by their frugal owners is made from the milk 

 of these sheep, but large quantities of this milk are made into 

 a very excellent cheese, called brinsin, which is sold in consid- 

 erable quantities. The whey is used by persons suffering from 

 pulmonary complaints. 



I passed through these countries in 1862 and alluded briefly 

 to their agriculture. Tlie flocks are generally kept at pasture 

 as much as the season permits, but are kept up during winter 

 and fed on hay, straw, cut clover, potatoes, turnips, &c. The 

 bucks receive a few oats for a few weeks in the fall, and the 

 ewes have, in lambing time, more or less crushed grain, bran, 

 or meal, moistened in water. In the most noted flocks the 

 lambs come in summer. The average quantity of wool per 

 head of Merinos is about one pound and three-quarters. The 

 total product of the two provinces, Moravia and Silesia, is nearly 

 two million pounds a year. When the weather is suitable the 

 wool is washed on the sheep, suitable ti:oughs or basins being 

 made for the purpose. Very fine bucks sell for from $75 to 

 $150 a head, but often bring a far higher price if particularly 

 fine wooUed. Ewes bring from |10 to $20, if very fine arid rich 

 in wool. Bucks are used for breeding at three years old, ewes 

 in their third year, and sometimes, if very robust and well 

 developed, still younger, and they are kept for breeding ordina- 

 rily four or five years. 



Not the least interesting feature of the show of fine wooUed 

 sheep were the specimens from the celebrated Imperial flock of 



