62 Essay on Sheep. 



*' and perfectly silky and soft lo the touch, and 

 " of delicate grain/' Mr. Custis adds, that 

 these sheep are shorn twice a year. I have 

 written to him to know why that uncommon 

 mode of shearing has been pursued. He in- 

 forms me that he would inquire and answer my 

 query; but I have not yet been favoured with 

 the information I wish on this important sub- 

 ject. 



Mr. Custis not having mentioned in his pam- 

 phlet the quantity of wool shorn at each time, 

 I am enabled in part to do it from one of the 

 letters which he has done me the favour to 

 write me. He says the best of these sheep have 

 yielded four pounds at a shearing, making an 

 aggregate of eight pounds per year. It appears 

 to me Mr. Custis is not fully informed eitlier of 

 the fineness or the quantity of wool produced 

 by the improved Merino, when he supposes 

 that eight pounds of unwashed wool from the 

 best of his sheep is more than double the pro- 

 duce of the Merino. I have shorn from one 

 of my Merino rams of the improved PYcnch 

 breed, eight and an half pounds of unwashed 

 wool, and from another seven pounds and three 

 quarters; though my pastures being extensive, 

 my sheep, kept free from fihli in the winter, 

 are remarkably clean when they come to be 



