INTRODUCTION. V 



fore much has been ah'eady written, and we pos- 

 sess many excellent works of the English and 

 French agriculturalists upon it, and one in parti- 

 cular from the accurate pen of Chancellor Livings- 

 ton, I have likewise ventured to add my mite, 

 and to suppose that, by collecting and arranging in 

 a lucid order the facts and observations which are 

 to be found dispersed in the several works I have 

 met with, so as to form the whole into something 

 like a methodical system for the management of 

 sheep in general, and of Merinos in particular, 

 a treatise might be formed interesting to the pub- 

 lic, and particularly useful to many individuals, 

 who, with little knowledge of the subject, are 

 desirous of entering into so promising a specula- 

 tion : especially at this moment, when great 

 numbers of Merino sheep have just arrived 

 among us, and when many of our enterprising 

 young men are turning their thoughts from the 

 envious competition of professional pursuits, 

 from the hazardous speculations of the counting- 

 house, and from the enervating dissipation of a 

 city life, to the calm, safe, healthy, and delightful 

 occupations of rural employments. 



Such are the pretensions of this little work, 

 and although the writer does not pretend to so 

 much experience as to say he has tested every 

 fact and observation which he has produced, or 

 even every rule which he has laid down, yet they 



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