352 



SHEEP 



lamb crop. They (the lambs) would be so feeble when dropped that in a 

 majority of cases you could not tell for twenty-four hours whether they had 

 vitality enough to live. 



They, however, breed far longer than the average sheep and 

 raise a fair percentage of lambs. 



The early maturing qualities of the American Merino are of 

 secondary character, the lambs developing more slowly than the 

 mutton breeds. 



The distribution of the Merino has been general all over the 

 civilized world where sheep husbandry is followed at all. Aus- 

 tralia, New Zealand, Germany, and the United States are the 

 leading countries breeding sheep of the American Merino type. 

 These sheep have been bred in all parts of the United States, 

 but are not so popular as they were a half century ago, now that 

 mutton is more in demand and wool has depreciated in value. 

 Further, sheep of the American type, with numerous folds, are 

 objected to, on account of the difficulty in shearing, so that 

 smooth-bodied Merinos are more popular than the American. 

 At the present time Ohio, Vermont, New York, Michigan, Wis- 

 consin, and Missouri are the states containing the principal flocks 

 of this class. Many Merinos have been exported from Vermont 

 and Ohio to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, 

 and South America. 



Organizations to promote Merino sheep are numerous. The Ver- 

 mont Merino Sheep Breeders' Association, organized in 1879, has 

 published four volumes of flock books and registered over 300,000 

 sheep, mainly as flocks. The United States Merino Sheep 

 Register was organized in Ohio in 1876, and published a volume 

 of its flock book the same year. In 1882 the Ohio Spanish 

 Merino Sheep Breeders' Association was organized at Columbus, 

 and published its first volume in 1885. The National Record of 

 the American Merino Sheep Register was organized in 1881 in 

 Wisconsin, the first volume of the flock book being published in 

 1882. The New York Merino Sheep Breeders' Association was 

 organized in 1879 and tne Michigan Merino Association in 1880. 

 In other states associations for recording Merino sheep also 

 organized, but these have never become very active factors in 

 the Merino industry. In January, 1906, a conference of Merino 



