PREFACE. % 



forward aiid seconded their ai dour by judicious en- 

 couragements. 



Numbers of my fellow citizens are now endeavour- 

 ing to supply themselves wiih his invaluable stock; 

 and mciny who had never given the least attention to 

 sheep, are extending their ciu-e to Merino flocks. 



Findhig myself frequently called upon for informa- 

 tion, and being anxious to communicate all that my 

 experience or inquiries had taught me upon the sub- 

 ject, as well as to keep alive the interest that I had 

 happily excited in my fellow citizens, I believed 

 that both might be effected by the publication of a 

 little volume which should in some sort combine in- 

 formation with amusement, and, taken in connection 

 with what I had before written, serve as a kind of 

 Shepherd's Manual, and point out to the rich and the 

 poor farmer the easiest means of converting their 

 flocks into Merinoes, as well as the advantage that 

 w ould accrue both to themselves and their country by 

 the change. I have endeavoured, in the execution of 

 this work, to render the style as simple as the subject 

 of which it treats; to sketch the natural histor>^ of 

 sheep in that rapid manner which would serve to 

 satisfy a plain farmer, without swelling the work with 

 disquisitions adapted to the taste of the experienced 

 naturalist. I am extremely flattered by the attention 

 the Legislature and the Society of Useful Arts have 

 shown it, in deeming it sufficiently import^ait to be 

 printed at the public expense. Should it contribute 

 to the extension of the Merino sheep, to the mutual 

 advantage of the agriculturalist and the manufacturer, 

 it will be very consoling to me to believe, after having 



2 



