AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM 153 



pijsturcs, as the same thing- has been observed in other 

 wellniunaocd flocks, and as njy own has always been 

 kept in the best possible state. The mean weight of tlic 

 fleeces of the store ewes, was 7 lb. loz. (pois de mare)." 



In a private letter, he says-^" 1 have much admired 

 the samples of wool j-ou have caused to be directed to 

 me; I like to see} our perseverance gets the better of 

 prejudices among your neighbours. The Spanish breed 

 of Sheep is a true mine, wliich the English have icfused 

 to explore till now. 1 don't knov/ wherher I am mista- 

 ken, but I suspect in you a higher opinion of that breed 

 than you were pleased to own. It seems that, in order 

 to reconcile your prejudiced countrj'men to the admissi- 

 on of these foreign sheep, you disguised them under tliQ 

 Hyeland and South Down cloak ; and knowingt hat meat 

 and fat are, in England, the necessarj' passports of good 

 fleeces, yon particular!}' insisted upon the carcass being 

 not injured by the introfluction of the Spanish blood. Is it 

 your opinion that there will be more profit for you in 

 crossing the Spanish rams with the tlyeland and Soutft 

 Down ewes, than in breeding the Spanish in and in? — 

 Have you any cxperimcat wliicii makes you suppose that 

 a degeneration would take place by persevering exclu- 

 sively in the same blood? Now, if there was no degene- 

 ration, ( as [ am led to suppose by my experience, and 

 that of many others in France,) would not there be in- 

 finitely more profit in keeping the pure Spanish breed, 

 than by crossing? The reputation of that excellent 

 V>recd cannot but increase and extend annually in Great 

 Britain. Jf the monopoly created by your wool laws, in 

 favor of ilic manufacturer, was once abolished, the Span- 

 ish sheep would, no douI:(t, grow more and more popular' 

 The adviuilagcs I experience, by the keeping of diat 

 breed, would certainly be still greater with you, since 

 voa have ah cady h red out Spanish Rams at one hundred 

 guineas per aim whereas, f could not sell them higher 

 than twenty-five. Vou v/ill sec, however, in the JNum- 

 herof September, of the Bibliotliequc Britannique, thaS 



