[118] 



health of the flock. These valuable qualities they transmit 

 to their offspring to a great extent, and for this reason they 

 are, as they deserve to be, the most valuable to cross upon 

 the common sheep of the country. About eighty per cent, 

 of lambs is about the usual average for the ewes. 



Considering the fact that Spain has been for many cen- 

 turies the fountain head whence are derived the full blood 

 of the Merino, it will be a matter of interest to many to 

 read the subjoined pages from the report of D. J. Browne^ 

 who is an eminent author and traveler, and who wrote this 

 for the Agricultural Bureau at Washington. It will also be 

 a suggestive essay on sheep raising on the plateau lands of 

 Tennessee ; nearly every thing done there can be done in 

 Tennessee. To those who design following the business on 

 the plateau lands the following is especially commended : 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN SPAIN. 



In the course of my sojourn in Spain, in 1833, I made it 

 a point to visit some of the sheep-walks, with the view of 

 procuring such information from the shepherds relative to- 

 the management of the Merino as could be drawn from 

 them. The result of those inquires, together with other 

 facts since obtained, are embodied in the following paper, 

 which it is hoped may prove of service to some of those 

 who have embarked in this important branch of rural 

 economy. D. J. B. 



" In Spain there are at present two domestic breeds of 

 sheep, which differ widely from one another, both in their 

 habits and in the properties of their wool. One kind has, 

 for a long period, existed in the warmer parts of that 

 country, and is known by their long, coarse, hairy wool; 

 and the other, which migrates every spring from the plains 

 and valleys of Andalusia, Estremadura, Murcia, Valencia, 

 and Catalonia, to the cool mountains of Old Castile and 

 Arragon, where they pass the summer, and return again in 



