FRENCH SHEEP. 79 



flock into the United States has recently taken place, and 

 others not unlikely to follow, it is proper that the public 

 should be fully enlightened as to the degree of its merit. 



The following is a portion of a report concerning them, 

 drawn up by M. Gilbert, of the French National Institute, 

 and Avill be found inserted in Chancellor Livingston's 

 " Essay on Sheep." The eminent moral character of Mr. 

 Livingston forbids the suspicion that the account is exagger- 

 ated, as he had the opportunity personally to attest its truth. 



M. Gilbert says — " The stock from which the flock of 

 Rambouiliet was derived, was composed of individuals beau- 

 tiful beyond any that had ever before been brought from 

 Spain : but having been chosen from a great number of flocks, 

 in diflerent parts of the kingdom, they were distinguished by 

 very striking local differences, which formed a medley dis- 

 agreeable to the eye, but immaterial as it affected their 

 quality ; these characteristic diff'erences have been melted 

 into each other, by their successive alliances, and from them 

 have resulted a race which perhaps resembles none of those 

 which compose the primitive stock, but which certainly does 

 not yield in any circumstance to the most beautiful in point 

 of size, form, and strength ; or in the fineness, length, soft- 

 ness, strength, and abundance of the fleece. The manufac- 

 turers and dealers in wool, who came in numbers to Ram- 

 bouiliet this year (1796) to purchase, unanimously agreed 

 to this fact, at the very time that they were combining to 

 keep down the price. All the wool of Spain that I have ex- 

 amined, not excepting the prime Leonese, the most esteem- 

 ed of any, appeared to me to contain much more of jar 

 (hair) than that of Rambouiliet." 



An importation transpired, in 1840, of twenty ewes and 

 two rams, selected from this celebrated flock, by Mr. D. C. 

 Collins of Hartford, Conn., who is still their proprietor. 

 The motives which prompted this laudable enterprise, to- 

 gether with a minute description of these valuable sheep, 

 appear in the American Agriculturist, of July, 1843. The 

 following account was prepared by its editor, who had ex- 

 pended much time in examining them : — 



" While Mr. Collins was travelling in Europe in the year 

 1839, having his eye occasionally upon its agriculture and 

 improved stocks, among other things, this gentleman was 

 struck with the marked superiority of the Spanish Merinos, 

 composing the celebrated royal flocks kept at Rambouiliet 



