ISO ^ssay on Sheep. 



quantity of cloth was made at Clermont by com- 

 mon country spinners and weavers from one 

 pound four ounces of Clermont Merino wool; 

 and thirty-two and a half yards of twenty-five 

 -and a half inches wide, were made in Mr. Ed- 

 ward P. Livingston's family from sixteen and 

 three-fourths pounds of wool. 



In the year 1723 Merino sheep were carried 

 to Sweden, where they have greatly multiplied, 

 and retained their original purity. If long cold 

 winters, and even bad keeping, would change 

 them for the worse, they would have experi- 

 enced that change in upwards of eighty years, 

 during which they have so greatly multiplied 

 as to have stopped the importation of Spanish 

 Wool into Sweden. Indeed, the experience of 

 a number of other nations has put it out of doubt, 

 that the Merino sheep do not degenerate by be- 

 ing carried to a cold climate. This fact being 

 once established, what is to stop their progress 

 in our own country? I have already shown 

 how the most indigent cultivator may, in the 

 course of a few years, convert his common sheep 

 into Mcrinoes, not only without expense, but 

 with profit. If he fears that they are more de- 

 licate, and require more care than our common 

 sheep, I can assure him, from my own expe- 

 rience, that though like all others they v/ill be 



