WOOL growers' association. 401 



But notwithstanding the numerous good points of the Merino, we find compara- 

 tively few Merinos in Indiana. The farmer has not taken to the Merino, and 

 we often hear the question asked at our fairs, " What kind of a sheep is that dirty 

 black thing over there?" showing that they are not so common. The Merino has, 

 in the last few yeare, got a back-set from the low price of wool, it being raised more 

 especially for wool. Some say the cause was overproduction ; some say that it was 

 low tariff; some say that it was because the Republicans were in power so long . 

 but these questions I shall not attemjit to settle, neither shall I tell you what the 

 present Congress will do in regard to the tariff, but I shall not be surprised if they 

 do nothing. Then we must take things as they are and not wait for them to get as 

 they should be, as the gentleman did when he entered the public library presided 

 over by a lady, and asked for the book "Woman as She Is ;" the lady informed him 

 that that book was out, but that she had another book, " Man as He Should Be." 

 The gentleman took the book but never returned it. Now, gentlemen, I am in 

 favor of taking the present price when we can do no better, and not returning a 

 single Congressman that votes against the wool interest. 



Now, sir, with the low price of wool there is one point settled for the wool 

 grower in regard to the sheep — that is that he can not raise sheep for wool exclu- 

 sively, but he must handle a sheep that will go into the market as mutton at a 

 good px-ice, and also one that will shear the best fleece possible for a mutton sheep ; 

 then, sir, we will not be in the fix that Mary Ann was when she had two beaux. 

 She said, "If I can not get Tom I will take Jo, and if I can not get Jo I will take 

 Tom; but I do not want both." We sheep raisers want both fleece and mutton. 

 And my experience and observation has taught me that a cross of Merino blood 

 on the common sheep, Southdown, Shropshiredown or Cotswolds, will increase the 

 weight of the fleece and produce a wool of the greatest value and of the greatest 

 demand of any wool produced, there being more fabrics manufactured from this 

 class of wool than all others. You who attended our late sheep-shearing festival 

 well recollect the sheep shown by Mr. O. Pursel, being a cross of a Merino buck on 

 a Cotswold ewe which sheared sixteen pounds and took the first premium on wool 

 in the grade department, outweighing the premium fleeces of all other sheep except 

 the full blooded Merino, showing a sheep both adapted to wool and mutton, and 

 I doubt much whether we can make a better cross than the Cotswold and Merino 

 for the farmers' sheep, although I have succeeded well in crossing the Merino on 

 high grade Shropshire, getting a good sheep in size and a good fleece in quality 

 and weight. Gentlemen, it is easy to talk of grades and cross breeds, but when we 

 come to continue this crossing, grade upon grade or full blood upon grade, then, 

 sir, you need all your judgment, experience and skill to know what to do when 

 you get to certain points. I have used a Merino and Shropshire buck, crossing 

 back and forth on each other's grades, the original ewes being high grade Cotswold, 

 and have failed to retain the size of sheep and weight of fleece of the first cross> 

 the first cross being better than the ewes crossed upon. I have come to the con- 

 clusion that after a few crosses you must fall back to an original set of ewes to 

 breed from, or get a buck of the same blood as the ewes you started with. 



But I think the coming sheep is yet to be produced by a wise crossing from 



26— Aqricultuke. 



