198 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



is also essential in the propagation of the larger breeds of sheep; 

 for large, heavy-feeding animals, kept for a few generations on 

 light, poor pastures, will soon deteriorate, and each successive 

 generation will fall below the preceding, until the stock will 

 show but few points of resemblance to the original. 



But it may not be profitable to lengthen this report by con- 

 sidering conditions which do not, as a general rule, exist with 

 the farmers within the limits of this society. We are not in 

 close proximity to a market, and our feed is not very abundant, 

 although what we have is sweet. 



Without question the grand idea with our farmers is. From 

 what breed of sheep can we get the most wool, and at the 

 greatest profit on the money and labor expended ? 



If we were to examine this question at length, and discuss 

 all its various points, we should overstep the proper limits of a 

 report. We will casually glance at only a few leading ideas. 

 Our society in its offers of awards and premiums recognizes 

 only two classes of sheep, the long-woolled and the fine-woolled ; 

 — the long-woolled including the Cotswold, Leicester, and their 

 grades, and natives ; the fine-woolled including the Merinos and 

 Southdowns, with their grades. The natives not being a dis- 

 tinct breed, we will leave them out in our remarks which are 

 to follow. In the four breeds named we have the four leading 

 breeds of sheep to be found in New England, if not in the 

 country. It is not our purpose to institute close comparisons 

 between these truly excellent breeds of sheep, but simply give 

 a few ideas gathered from observation, and what information 

 we have been able to obtain. The pure Merino is emphatically 

 a fine-woolled sheep, yielding a large fleece of heavy wool, and 

 the farmer who shears a flock of tliis breed of sheep can boast 

 of a large product of wool in weight. But in this wool we find 

 a large amount of foreign substance, which disappears on the 

 application of the soap and warm water, leaving a proportionate 

 small amount of clean wool for the manufacturer. It is a well- 

 known fact that so long as fine woollen goods continue to be 

 worn so long must fine wool find a market ; but it is also a 

 well-established fact that dealers in wool begin to look with 

 care and suspicion upon the heavy, soggy fleeces of pure-blood 

 Merino wool, and ask that a reasonable discount shall be made 

 for dirt. 



