A^RJCUI^TURAL IvtUSEUfl OC 



d'ad tilcy are as goed nurses as any sheep I have cvet 

 tten. It NTas not til! some yedrs after their arrival in this 

 country, when th.ey had become inured to the climate, 

 that any instance of double lambs occurred, now it is not 

 an unfrequcnt occurrence. 



That power to influence tlie character of a flock, which 

 is said to exist in the male rather than in the female, is 

 here apparent; first, in as much as the polled rams of this 

 breed, which are occasionally to be found, if descended 

 from a polled ram, will produce male stock having a 

 tendency to be without horns, or at least to have only 

 snaghorns ; and, on the other hand, the get of the Meri- 

 no ram, on shearling ewtis got also by hiiiiself, have a 

 strong tendenc}' to horns, almost equally so with the we- 

 thers of this breed, rvhich resemble very much the small 

 original Dorset wether ; for this reason, I judge that a 

 cross between the best shaped Merino ram, and the old 

 Dorset ewe, will be excellent, because the outward cha- 

 racter being much alike, the want of quantity and quality 

 of wool, in the Dorset breed, will be corrected in the 

 most striking manner ; this tendency in the Merino 

 sheep, to grow wool in abundance, must add materially 

 to the health of the flock, by covering the most vital and 

 tender parts of the body, namely, the belly and the breast. 

 The effect of a Spanish ram on tlic lii-eces of a horned 

 flock, such as the Dorset, the Welsh (a sheep of neat 

 frame), on the Wiltshire, the Norfolks, the Dartmoor^ 

 the Scotch, and indeed the whole race of horned moun- 

 taineers, will be neither more nor less than a very great 

 increase of profit on the fleece, with very little, if any, 

 injury whatever to the form of the animal. And when 

 "we consider, that the fleece makes an annual return, the 

 rental as it were, and that a quick return is allowed to 

 be the farmer's best object, while the carcass, like the fee, 

 can only be once so'd, we may express alike our sur- 

 prise and regret, that sucn fatal supineness should have 

 thus long prevailed, on a subject of thr most manifest im- 

 portance, botii to the teuunt and the landlord. 



