1£2 Essay on Sheep, 



as the short, close wool of the Merino shows 

 his shape precisely. 



• But to return to the question of the degene- 

 ration of the Merino sheep. So far as a scar- 

 city of food may, as I have said, operate a 

 change for the worse in sheep, it cannot apply 

 to the Merino when introduced into our coun- 

 try; because, not requiring better pastures than 

 our own sheep, there is no reason for the change 

 of size, at least such change as the wool of those 

 sheep that have been introduced from Britain 

 has undergone: this was a change in the quan- 

 tity rather than in the quality. When a sheep 

 diminished in size, it would have been a verv 

 unwise provision of nature to have suffered him 

 to carry the same quantity of wool which he 

 bore upon a larger and a stronger carcass; his 

 w^ool, therefore, diminished in length in the 

 same manner that his carcass did in size; but 

 the quality of the wool remained the same, or;, 

 if any thing, changed for the better. So if the 

 large and improved breed of Merinoes were 

 kept upon very scanty pastures, they would di- 

 minish in size, and carry shorter fleeces; but 

 those fleeces, even under the worst keeping, 

 would still retain all their original properties. 

 We are often told of the influence of climate 

 m effecting changes: that it operates I can be- 



