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CHAPTER III. 



MERINO SHEEP, 



One of the principal objects of this Essay 

 being to impress upon my fellow citizens the 

 importance of cultivating this most valuable 

 breed of sheep, I propose to devote this chapter 

 to them, in addition to what I have already 

 offered. 



One of the first ideas that strikes the farmer 

 is, that his sheep may degenerate, and that if 

 the quality of their wool should change, he 

 would have put himself to great expense to 

 change a sheep of better size and form for one 

 which he imagines to be inferior in both; and 

 he is strengthened in this opinion by having 

 observed, that most of the British sheep that 

 have from time to time been brought here, have 

 degenerated. This I confess very generally to 

 have happened, but I deny that any inference 

 injurious to the Merino breed can be drawn 

 from it. The British sheep here alluded to are 

 the long-wool] ed, for no others were thought 

 better than our own. This race of sheep can 



