No. 10. 



Merino Sheep. 



315 



For the Farmers' Cabinnt. 

 Merino Sheep. 



Mr. Editor, — I see, with pleasure, that 

 the premium list of the Philadelphia Society 

 for promoting Agriculture, for the present 

 year, is made to embrace the Merino breed 

 of sheep: this is well, for it is high time that 

 the invaluable race should be again brought 

 into notice ; it is but for their friends to per- 

 mit them to make their own way and not 

 unite their efforts to kill them witii kindness, 

 and they will do all that was ever promised 

 for them by those who were best acquainted 

 with their real qualities, which were neither 

 few nor small. I hope to see specimens of 

 the pure breed at the Society's exhibition in 

 the autumn, trusting that some few amongst 

 their ten thousand former admirers have had 

 the constancy to preserve them uncontanii- 

 nated, were it only on the score of old attach- 

 ments, for surely there must have been some- 

 thing real in their professions, which were so 

 long, loud, and deep; but this hope 1 indulge, 

 rather for the sake of instituting a trial be- 

 tween a cross with the Merino buck and the 

 pure-bred Leicester or Bakewell ewe, of the 

 most perfect form that can be selected, but 

 not ot very great size ; for from such an union 

 I have long been of the opinion that by far 

 the most valuable wool is to be obtained, ra- 

 ther than from the cross with the Southdown ; 

 the staple of the wool between the former 

 being more likely to give a combing wool 

 of superior quality, which is much wanted 

 amongst us; while the perfect form of the 

 thorough-bred Bakewell ewe would not be 

 likely to suffer much deterioration from the 

 cross — taking for granted it will be admitted 

 that the form of the Merino is by no means 

 what might be desired by the admirers of 

 symmetry and proportion. And this cross 

 between the smaller male and the larger fe- 

 male, would be in accordance with the pre- 

 sent enlightened theory, by which a race of 

 improved animals may be obtained in a quar- 

 ter part of the time that was once deemed 

 necessary for the full developement of the 

 experiment. It is much to be desired that 

 some of our friends who are favourably situ- 

 ated, would take the subject soberly in hand, 

 and see what could be done in the way of 

 raising amongst ourselves a wool whose pe- 

 culiar character would be of paramount im- 

 portance to our domestic manufactures, in the 

 event of a war with England. 



The following is an extract from a treatise 

 on this peculiar breed of sheep, the pure Me- 

 rinos, by Mr. George Flower, of Albion, Illi- 

 nois: it will be read with great interest at 

 this time; and it may be hoped that some spi- 

 rited friends of the cause will take measures 

 to introduce specimens of his flock — the pur- 



est, in all probability, to be obtained at the 

 present day — into this part of the country, in 

 time for the Philadelphia Society's Exhibition 

 in the autumn. J. T. 



" The history of my own flock, kept in the 

 southern part of Illinois, is favourable to the 

 fine-wooled breed They are from the meri- 

 noes of Spain, procured just before the French 

 overran the country. Sir Charles Stewart, 

 the English ambassador, purchased the royai 

 flock. He shipped them, after a hurried drive, 

 scarcely out of the reach of the pursuing ene- 

 my, some hundred miles. Six thousand only 

 reached the shores of England ; and, after a 

 lapse of a year, two thousand sheep survived. 

 These were purchased by my father. The 

 first year's clip sold readily for $1 per pound 

 in the grease, amounting to $10,000. This 

 was then thought to be a very low price; 

 wool once, during the war, about three years 

 previous, having attained the enormous price 

 of $5 per pound. Some additions were after- 

 wards made from the Paular and Escurial 

 flocks. When I emigrated to this country, 

 in 1817, I brought with me six of the finest 

 animals of the wool-bearing species ever 

 brought to this country. This is the origin 

 of my flock ; they have been kept in tne same 

 district, and on the same farm where I now 

 reside, ever since. 



" No deterioration in wool has taken place; 

 on the contrary, the wool fibre of them is 

 somewhat finer. Eighty ewes, purchased of 

 Mr. Beecher, of Lancaster, Ohio, from the 

 Steubenville stock, has been the only addition 

 to the pure-bred stock. The excellence of 

 my wool is not only to be attributed to the 

 fineness of the original stock, but to the con- 

 tinued selection of males with the finest wool. 

 This flock has never been pampered, but has 

 been kept hardily, in a way that any farmer 

 may keep them. They go out on the prairie 

 in April, and live upon the prairie-grass till 

 October, or until it is too dry and harsh. 

 They are then brought into the inclosed pas- 

 tures; and, as winter advances, they are fed 

 night and morning with hay and a few sheaf 

 oats, or a small portion of shelled corn, say 

 half a pint to each sheep. The flock is now 

 completely acclimated, and may be said, after 

 a twenty years' domicile, to be a native Illi- 

 nois breed. Since I have owned them, there 

 is a change for the better in the constitution 

 and fatting qualities of these sheep. When 

 they first came from Spain, the ewes were 

 accounted bad mothers; and many were of 

 tender constitutions. Now, from attention to 

 these points in so long a course of breeding, 

 the ewes are excellent mothers, and the fat- 

 test sheep is found to have the finest fleece. 

 They are decidedly hardier than the common 

 sheep. These facts show that the fine-wooled 



