322 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



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." 



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

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

 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 beea 

 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 

 dency 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 coi'relative tendency to inci'eased 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 woi"ds, 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 which the 

 farmer should never disregard ; but he may, in a great measure, counteract this influence by- 

 careful management and selection in })ree(tuig. ... A better illusti-ation of this camiot 

 be found than in the fact that the Merino has been ti-ansplanted to every latitude on the 

 temperate zone, and some beyond it — to Sweden in the North and Austr.ilia in the South — 

 and has retamed its tendency to produce wool exclusively, and wool of neai'ly 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 distingviishing mark or excel- 

 lence of the breed. 



" The preservation of the INIeiino race in its utmost ])urity at the Ca]>e of (ioml Hope, m 

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

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

 gent breeders exist."t 



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 

 o])inion on this j)oint regarded as of as great weight as that of any other 

 individual, says : 



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

 were it not invidious, I w'ould name some sections where wool growers are greatly favored 

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

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

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

 to the fleece."|| 



This last sentence of this imi)orlant extract, though not bearing so par- 

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

 nection for subse(|uent reference. 



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



' Vouutt on .*hoep, p. 71, where the names snd teBtimony of these individuals ore given, and more at 

 Icrmth in Bischoft'on Wouls, &c. vul. '.', p. 118 to 20(), t Tji (»— 70. 



\ Lasteyrie on Merino Sheep, p. 101. || Letter of Mr. L. published in ".\aierican Shepherd," p. 436. 



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