132 Essay on Sheep. 



with a fifteen-sixteenths of the Ryeland Meri* 

 no; and I can easily believe that there is some 

 justice in the remark, since I cannot conceive 

 that one-sixteenth of common blood, which will 

 only be one-thirty-second in the offspring, can 

 make any difference in the fleece; whereas con- 

 siderable difference may be occasioned in the 

 beauty and vigour of the flock by the ram hav- 

 ing been bred, for four generations, from ewes 

 of the country, assimilated to the climate and to 

 the manner of keeping. 



As I have mentioned the Ryeland ewes as the 

 basis on which Dr. Parry formed his stock, it 

 will be proper to give some description of them, 

 otherwise it might be thought that they pos- 

 sessed some peculiar excellencies not to be 

 found in our sheep. An account of them is 

 inserted in the Annals of Agriculture, vol. xx. 

 p. 15. They are short- woolled sheep, yielding 

 fleeces of from one and a half to two pounds. 

 The best of these fleeces sell at two shillings 

 and six-pence sterling the pound, without the 

 breachlngs; they weigh, when fat, fourteen 

 pounds a quarter. From this description it is 

 pretty clear that they are not better than our 

 short-woolled New-England sheep, and yield 

 less wool. It has always appeared to me, that our 

 native stock has been injured in this State, and 



