and Extension of the Merino Breed of Sheep* 347 



It has been stated by some writers, and among the rest by Mr. Charles Piciet 

 of Geneva,* that the Merino is longer in coming to maturity than most other 

 breeds. He says, that they do not acquire their full growth till three years old ; 

 that they shed and renew their teeth some months later than the native breeds of 

 France; and that, though the rams are fit for generation at a year old, the ewes 

 rarely take the ram till they are eighteen or twenty months old ; and some not till 

 they have reached thirty months. This statement seems, in some degree, invalidated 

 by certain facts related by the same author, who informs us, that the average 

 ■weight of six ram lambs of the pure blood, at twenty-five days old, was about 

 16 lbs. English. On the 28th of April following, one of these lambs being then 

 four months old, weighed 5i|^lbs. English; and, on the 4th of June, at the age of 

 between twenty-two and twenty-three weeks, the heaviest of the lot weighed nearly 

 65 lbs. English. Mr. Pictet himself expresses some astonishment at finding that 

 the weight of this lamb was greater than that of those of the new Leicester and 

 South Down breeds, which, according to him, are stated by Mr. Young (Annals of 

 Agriculture, Vol. XXXV.) as being only 57lbs.t 



If, however, these sheep are slower in becoming adult, it is generally agreed tha' 

 they are much longer-lived than other known races. They sometimes keep their 

 teeth to fourteen or fifteen years of age ; and, according to Pictet, there was in the 

 possession of Cit. Marais, at Nogent, in the year 1802, a Merino ewe, which, hav- 

 ing come from Spain in the year 1786, could not be less than sixteen years old. 

 She had then all her teeth, and had brought a lamb the preceding winter. ;J; 

 Huzard relates other instances of the same kind in the flock of Rambouillet.J 



M. Pictet mentions some other curious particulars with regard to the Merino 

 race; as, for example, that they eat more indifferently of all sorts of food than 

 other sheep; II that they regularly share their milk with the progeny of other ewes, 

 so that while their own lamb is sucking on one side, they admit, without reluctance, 

 a stranger to occupy the other; 5 and that the adult sheep have an erect mien and 

 measured step, and the lambs an indisposition to frisk and gambol, like those of 

 other breeds. In the latter respect these animals, according to him, seem to partake 

 of the stateliness and gravity which characteiize the human inhabitants of their 



• Pictet Falts et Observations siir lej Merinos d'Espagne, pages 14, 23, 24. 

 \ Ibiaein, page 3. J Ibidcqi, p ge 14. note. § Daiibcnton Instruction pour les Bergers, 

 page 107. note. || Pictet, page 13. ^ Ibidem, page 25. 



Yy 2 



