124 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



appreciated their value, and as the gentleman who imported 

 them was obliged to revisit Europe, he gave them to Mr. 

 Craigie, of Cambridge, who, not knowing their value, soon ate 

 them up. Not many years after, Mr. Craigie having learned 

 something more of Merinos, paid no less than a thousand dol- 

 lars for a Merino buck. Another small importation was made 

 in 1802, and again in 1809 or 1810, and a few years after a 

 complete Merino fever ran through the whole farming commu- 

 nity. 



The Merinos are small, with rather flat sides, narrow chests 

 and long legs. The skin is of a reddish tinge and loose under 

 the throat, which is generally considered as indicative of good 

 fleece. The French Merinos, particularly, possess very great 

 looseness of skin about the throat, so much as to exhibit large 

 folds or wrinkles. Their wool is very close and thick, and is so 

 filled with oil as to shed the water and protect the animal to 

 considerable extent from the effects of rain. They are bred 

 exclusively for the fineness of their wool, and have few other 

 excellences to recommend them. Their carcase is small, they 

 arrive late at maturity, and are not very good nurses, while 

 they carry too much flesh on parts of little value to the butcher, 

 and fatten too slowly for the farmer who breeds for the sham- 

 bles. For these reasons, probably, more than any other, the 

 number of fine-woolled sheep kept in this State has greatly 

 diminished, as already seen, and the farmers are now turning 

 their attention more to the raising of coarser or middle-woolled 

 varieties, which arrive at maturity earlier and attain to greater 

 weights. 



The premiums offered for fine-woolled sheep at the State 

 Fair, were, for Saxon bucks and ewes two years old and over, 

 and also for bucks and ewes under two years, the same as for 

 long-woolled sheep of the same ages, and the same for Silesian 

 Merinos and for French and Spanish Merinos, not less than 

 three ewes being required on exhibition. 



Tliere were no entries of Saxons. The entries of Silesian 

 Merinos were as follows : — 



No. 1. — Six ewes, over two years old, owned by George Campbell, ^yest- 

 niinster, Vt. 

 2. — Three ewes, under two years old, owned by George Campbell, West- 

 minster, Vt. 



