MERINO SHEEP 143 



of the management of these flocks and the life 

 of their guardians are referred to the interest- 

 ing essay on "Sheep," by Robert R. Livingston, 

 printed by order of the Legislature of New York 

 in 1810. 



Of the traveling sheep were the strains known as 

 Escurials, Guadalupes, Paulars, Infantados, Ne- 

 grettis, and others, all esteemed for various quali- 

 ties, and some of whose names have become famil- 

 iar to American ears. The stationary flocks appear 

 to have passed away, or at least to have gained no 

 renown. 



The Spanish sheep reached their highest ex- 

 cellence about the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century; but during the Peninsular War the best 

 flocks were destroyed or neglected, and the race 

 so deteriorated that in 1851 a Vermont breeder 

 of Merinos, who went to Spain on purpose to see 

 the sheep of that country, wrote that he did not 

 see a sheep there for which he would pay freight to 

 America, and did not believe they had any of pure 

 blood! But Merinos of pure blood had been 

 brought into France in the last quarter of the 

 eighteenth century, and there carefully and judi- 

 ciously bred. In Saxony they were carefully but 

 injudiciously bred, everything being sacrificed to 

 fineness of fleece. 



Less than one hundred years ago the sheep of 

 the United States were the descendants of the 



