[1291 



ness and a strong desire to be off. At this time, it is neces- 

 sary that the utmost vigilance should be exercised, lest the 

 sheep should escape, as it has often happened that a tribe 

 has stolen a forced march of three or four leagues upon a 

 sleepy shepherd ; but he is sure to find them by pursuing 

 the same road over which they came the autumn before, and 

 there are numerous instances of three or four strayed sheep 

 walking a hundred leagues to the very pastures where they 

 fed the preceding year. Thus they all go off towards their 

 summer retreats in the same order as they came, only with 

 this difference the flocks which migrate to Old Castile are 

 shorn on the road, and those which go to Arragon are shorn 

 at their journey's end. 



" Shearing of the Sheep. The season for sheep-shearing in 

 Spain, like the harvest and the vintage in corn and wine 

 countries, is a time of great festivity and rejoicing, both to 

 the proprietor and the workmen. A multitude of shearers, 

 washers, and other attendants are fed upon the flesh of the 

 culled sheep, and it would seem that the slaughter occasioned 

 by this season of feasting would be sufficient to consume the 

 whole flock. 



"The operation of shearing commences on the first of 

 May, provided the weather be fair ; for if the wool be not 

 quite dry, the fleeces, which are closely piled upon one an- 

 other as soon as they are taken off, would ferment and rot. 

 It is for this reason that the business is performed in large 

 spacious buildings called 'esquileos/ which are usually so 

 arranged as to receive entire flocks of twenty, forty, and even 

 sixty thousand sheep, and, besides, the constitutions of the 

 ewes are such that if they were exposed immediately after 

 shearing to the air of a bleak, stormy night, they would all 

 perish." 



We have only mentioned Southdown, Cotswold and Me- 

 rinos as the three most popular breeds in Tennessee. They 

 and their produce constitute nine-tenths of the sheep in the 

 9 



