286 BREEDING AND CROSSING. 



breeder of taste. Many of their ungainly points liav^e been 

 removed by the Germans ; and doubtless it would have been 

 thus to some extent in this country, provided that, from their 

 landing on our shores up to the present time, there had ex- 

 isted, without interruption, a remunerating price for their 

 fleeces ; but unfortunately this has not been so, and conse- 

 quently the instances are rare where any improvement has 

 been effected in either form or fleece. Nature, ever benefi- 

 cent in her purposes, for centuries was at work moulding 

 the Merino for a specific object, and that object consisted in 

 producing a superabundant covering for its body, and incom- 

 parable in its general qualities for the manufacture of the 

 softest and most beautiful fabrics ; whereas, if its conforma- 

 tion had been essentially different, it would not be what it 

 now is, but a mutton sheep. It has been seen that the im- 

 provement effected in the English breeds, was at the sacri- 

 fice of the quantity and quality of the wool of the old breeds, 

 proving most conclusively, that in breeding the Merino, if 

 we attempt to mould its form too much after the fashion of 

 the improved English sheep, it will be at the hazard of a 

 diminution of some of the admirable qualities of its fleece. 

 A wide chest and large abdominal organs are indispensable 

 qualities in a mutton breed, as they afford the means of has- 

 tening maturity, by enabling the animal to take up much 

 food, and more readily converting it into flesh and fat. But 

 on the contrary, these qualities are not needed to the same 

 degree for the production of a material for the finest fabrics, 

 and in the largest quantity. Nature constantly battles for 

 her rights in these matters, and evinced her obstinacy when 

 the English breeder undertook to overtask her by endeavor- 

 ing to make the Merino at once the producer of fine wool 

 and fat mutton ; but in the struggle she triumphed, showing, 

 that the race and draft horse can never be so assimilated, 

 that the product will exhibit the fleetness of the former 

 with the strength and docility of the latter, nor the sheep 

 both the bearer of much fat on its loins, and a fleece of the 

 finest texture. 



It has been observed that the Germans materially cha,nged 

 the form of the Merino, but it must be considered that in ef- 

 fecting this, they resorted to that extreme " refinement of 

 tone" in breeding, which always results in producing effem- 

 inacy, and to this is to be ascribed the extreme fineness of 

 the fleece of the Saxon Merino variety, at the sacrifice, how- 



