DISEASES OF SHEEP. 169 



ported to the United States, as will hereafter be seen, are as much 

 meliorated and improved in form and early maturity over the little 

 old animal of that name, of times gone by, as is the innproved short- 

 horned breed of cattle on the original stock upon which they were 

 built. 



This improvement of the South-down has been accomplished, not 

 by crossing and dovetailing with other breeds, but by a much safer 

 process, one which guarantees a continuation of its established ex- 

 cellence under ordinarily good management; by crossing to be sure, 

 but by crossing with and upon their own blood; the best South-down 

 ram upon the best South-down ewe; thus perfecting the shape and 

 disposition of the breed until a British writer entitled to great weight 

 has expressed the opinion in respect of it which we anticipate will 

 prevail and be acted upon before a great many years throughout the 

 greater portion of the United States, to wit: — that, "taking all their 

 qualities fairly into account, the South-down excels for general pur- 

 poses any breed in Great Britain/' The intelligent reader will, 

 however, be the better enabled to judge for himself, when the pecu- 

 liar qualities of the several breeds shall have been, as we propose, 

 impHrtially and more particularly described. 



Fluctuation of price has heretofore restricted, and will continue to 

 limit, investments in fine-wooUed sheep ; and this uncertainty of price 

 is the consequence of two causes which but too strongly forbid the 

 hope of long-continued uniformity in that particular, to wit: — the 

 fluctuating tariff policy of the country, rising or sinking in the scale 

 as one party or another gains or loses the ascendant; and then again 

 liable to be depressed by the ready facility with which in a short 

 time the supply may be brought up to and above the level of the 

 demand ; making it so uncertain whether the remunerating price of 

 one year may not be followed by a ruinous depression the next. 

 Under all circumstances, the grazier of sheep that yield a wool of 

 moderately good quality, can probably make his calculations with 

 more certainty; for, should the prospect justify it, he has but to 

 withhold his flock another year from the butcher, to avail himself of 

 a rise in the wool-market. In New England, the calculation is, that 

 if the fleece be carefully shorn Avhen ripe, and the pelt carefully 

 stripped from the carcass when the sheep dies, his death can be at- 

 tended with no positive loss at any rat-e, let it die when or how it 

 may. Taking all the chances of reasonable profit, in the existing 

 condition of the country, there can be no doubt that the sheep hus- 

 bandry of the United States, in all the States, south and west of 

 Pennsylvania especially, might be sooner extended, with less outlay, 

 and a surer prospect of remunerating results, than could almost any 

 other branch of industry, if sheep-masters could be brought to bestow 

 upon it a degree of care and of regular management approaching to 

 that which this interesting business commands in older countries. 

 Have we not in the ice-bound regions of the north convincing proof 

 that in the vast expanse of the middle and southern States, the rear- 

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