MERINO SHEEP 153 



ing State that English cutlers stamped their best 

 shears "True Vermonters," presently became 

 more famous as the nursery of improvement of the 

 Merino breed, to which object several intelligent 

 breeders devoted their efforts. By selection of the 

 best of the animals obtainable, the form of the 

 sheep was made more robust, the size increased, 

 and with it the length and thickness of all parts 

 of the fleece, so that the wool on a sheep's belly 

 was nearly as long as that on the sides. 



French Merinos, so much changed, since the 

 importations by Livingston, from the fashion of 

 their Spanish ancestors that they had become a 

 distinct family, were introduced, and had their 

 admirers, as had the Silesian Merinos. These 

 modem French sheep were larger and coarser 

 than the original Spaniards; the Silesians, smaller 

 than the French, but handsomer and hardier. 



As naturally as in former times, a "Merino 

 fever" again began to rage; fabulous prices were 

 paid for sheep, and men mortgaged their farms to 

 become p)ossessors of a score of full bloods. There 

 was no registry of flocks, and jockeys sold grade 

 sheep, numbered, lampblacked, and oiled up to 

 the desired blackness and greasiness, for full bloods 

 at prices tenfold beyond their real worth. Grow- 

 ers ran to the opposite extreme from that to which 

 they had gone during the Saxon craze, and now so 

 sacrificed everything to weight of fleece that Ver- 



