24 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



In an examination before the English House of Lords, in 1828, various 

 eminent staplers* testify, most decidedly, to the deterioration (in fineness) 

 of the British wools and their increase in length of staple, " since the 

 introduction of artificial food and the adoption of the forcing system.' 5 



My own observations fully corroborate these positions. I have exam- 

 ined, in repeated instances, with a good microscope, the wool of incivid- 

 ual sheep in my flock, taken in seasons when they have maintained a high 

 condition, and in others, when, from some incidental cause they have been 

 in ordinary or poor condition, and the difference in length and fineness is, 

 uniformly, distinctly perceptible. 



If the sheep breeder in warm climates can take advantage of the ten 

 ;lency to produce greater quantities of wool, following that supply of suc- 

 .culent herbage throughout the year which Nature has placed at his disposal, 

 and at the same time, by any unexpensive means which he can employ, 

 combat the correlative tendency to increased coarseness of fibre, he has 

 most assuredly, other things being equal, an entire advantage over the 

 breeder in colder regions. 



We come now to the important inquiry, Can this latter tendency be 

 successfully combated ; or, in other words, can wool of any desirable 

 fineness be produced in countries as warm, for example, as Louisiana, 

 Mississippi, &c. 1 



Let us examine Mr. Youatt's testimony on this point also. He says : 

 " Temperature and pasture have influence on the fineness of the fibre, and one whicn the 

 farmer should never disregai'd ; but he may, in a great measure, counteract this influence by 

 careful management and selection in breeding. ... A better illustration of this cannot 

 be found than in the fact that the Merino lias been transplanted to every latitude on the 

 temperate zone, and some beyond it to Sweden in the North and Australia in the South 

 and has retained its tendency to produce wool exclusively, and wool of nearly equal fineness 

 and value. "t 



Mr. Lasteyrie, equally good authority, uses the following language. 

 When he speaks of the preservation of the breed in its " utmost purity," 

 we are undoubtedly to understand him to refer as much to the fineness of 

 the wool as any other point, this being the distinguishing mark or excel 

 lence of the breed. 



1 The preservation of the Merino race in its utmost purity at the Cape of Good Hope, in 

 the marshes of Holland, and under the rigorous climate of Sweden, furnish an additional 

 support of this, my unalterable principle : fine wool sheep may be kept wherever iutelli 

 geat breeders exist. "$ 



Samuel Lawrence, Esq. the head of the great Lowell Manufacturing 

 Company, in Massachusetts, who, by his vast purchases of fine wool in all 

 parts of the United States for a long term of years, and his intimate prac- 

 tical acquaintance with the quality of the article, is entitled to have his 

 opinion on this point regarded as of as great weight as that of any other 

 individual, says : 



" That the properties of wool are affected by herbage and soil, I have not a doubt, and 

 were it not invidious, I would name some sections where wool growers are greatly favored 

 by Nature. One thing is certain, whatever may be the character of the soil, where there 

 are good shepherds there is sure to be found good wool. By judicious selections and cross- 

 ing, I believe a breed may be reared which will give four pounds of exquisitely fine wool 

 lo the fleece."|| 



This last sentence of this important extract, though not bearing so par- 

 ticularly on the point under examination, is recorded in its original con- 

 nection for subsequent reference. 



Australia and the Cape of Good Hope being cited by the distinguished 



*Youat* on Sheep, p. 71, where the names and testimony of these Individ aals are given ; and more at 

 length in Bischoff on Wools, &c., vol. ii. pp. 118 200. tPp-C9 70. 



I Lwtevrie on Merino Sheep, p. 101. fi Letter of Mr. L-, published in ' American gkapherd," p. 430, 



