370 REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 



form as the new Leicester, but their hardiness, prolificness 

 and size, give them a place among the superior breeds. 



The indigenous race of France has astonishingly improved. 

 They consist of several varieties the Roussillonne the Beri- 

 chonne the Jlrdennaize the Beaucerronneihe Normande, 

 c. The principal race now cultivated is the Spanish-French 

 merino, of which there are many millions. 



There are several varieties of sheep cultivated in the United 

 States. The native brejds are merged almost entirely by 

 crosses with the best foreign improved varieties which have 

 been imported into the country. Dr. E. HOLMES, in his re- 

 port to the Agricultural Society of Kennebec,* enumerates 

 eight different breeds of sheep cultivated in the United States, 

 viz: the native breed, the Otter, the Merino, the Texel, the 

 Dishley or New Leicester, the Caramanian, the South-Down, 

 the Frederick, and several other varieties; but those above 

 mentioned embrace all worthy the notice of the farmer. 



The native breed of sheep, of the middle and southern states, 

 was derived from very early importations from the mother coun- 

 try into the colony of Virginia. t They were subsequently 

 introduced into all the colonies from England; but the best 

 race, at that period, would now, in all probability, be consider- 

 ed as a very inferior breed. The first record, according to 

 Dr. HOLMES, of the introduction of sheep into New England, 

 is the importation by EDWARD WINSLOW, in the years 1624 

 and 1629, of "one hundred and forty head of cattle, some 

 horses, sheep and goats into Massachusetts bay. A genuine 

 native American sheep is rarely found in these days, so com- 

 pletely have they been merged in other and better varieties. 

 Indeed we have no recorded description of the peculiar points 

 by which they were distinguished.^ 



The Otter breed, so called on account of the length of their 

 bodies and the shortness of their legs, is a singular native 



* "The Northern Shepherd, being a Report of a Committee of the Kennebec 

 County Agricultural Society of the State of Maine, upon the Diseases and 

 Management of Sheep" an excellent little work, of 132 pages, suitable for 

 the pocket. 



t There is in fact no native American sheep in the proper sense of the term. 

 The only animal of the genus ovis, indigenous to this continent, with which 

 we are yet acquainted, is the Argali or Big Horn of the Rocky Mountains 

 familiarly known as the sheep of the Rocky Mountains, respecting which the 

 most exaggerated and unreasonable reports have been circulated. This ani- 

 mal bears a strong resemblance to the Asiatic Argali, deemed by some authors 

 and learned naturalists, but erroneously we think, as the parent of all the 

 varieties of the domestic sheep. 



t We cannot refrain from repeating in this place, a remark previously 

 made, that every farmer ought to select the best of his sheep for breeders 

 name them, and correctly note their ages, pedigrees, &c. in a book to be kept 

 in the family for that especial purpose. 



