Essay on Sheep, 5 1 



^' but the mean weight, taking rams and ewes 

 " together, has not quite attained to eight 

 " pounds, after deducting the tags and the 

 /* wool of the belly, which are sold separately." 

 It is proper to observe here, that the French 

 pound is about one-twelfth heavier than the 

 English; but at the same time to note, that, 

 from the general custom of folding the sheep 

 in France, of feeding them in fallows, and 

 wintering them in houses, they are very dirty, 

 and their fleeces of course proportionably hea- 

 vier: the loss in washing is about 60 per cent, 

 so that the average weight of the ram's fleece 

 would be, when washed and scoured, about six 

 American pounds, exclusive of tags and belly 

 wool. 



Before I quit Europe it may be proper to 

 lake a cursory view of the English sheep, since, 

 next to Spain, no country in that quarter of the 

 globe is so celebrated for its wool; nor is there 

 any that have paid so much attention to the 

 improvement of their stock; insomucli that 

 Young, in his Annals of Agriculture, asserts, 

 that Bakewell, in the year 1789, was in the 

 receipt of three thousand guineas a year for the 

 hire of rams, seven of which brought him two 

 thousand guineas. A spirit like this, attended 

 with proportionate wealth, could not fail, in 



