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PART II. 



HISTORY OF THE MERINO-RYELAND BREED 

 OF THE AUTHOR. 



CHAPTER I. 



First Establishment of the Breed. Number of the Flock. Reasons for expecting 

 the Possibility of producing Fine Wool in England. Tlfis Expectation con- 

 firmed by Experience in a great variety of Latitudes^ and under every Kind of 

 Regimen. Effect of crossing fine and coarse-woolled Ewes, in point of Fleece. 

 Fineness of filament, inelasticity, and softness greater in the Merino-Ryeland 

 than in the pure Merino. Specimens exhibited of Wool, Cloth, and Casimir. 

 Proportions of different sorts of Wool in the Fleece. Age at which the Wool 

 is finest. Weight of the Fleeces. Proportion of the Tolk and other Impurities. 

 Value of the Weol scoured, and in the yolk. Proves more in the Manufacture 

 than the pure Merino-, and why. Price of the Wool, and of the Cloth made 

 from it. Quality of the Wool of earlier Crosses. Effects of Heat and Food 

 on the Wool. Does not Jail off at a particular Season. Colour. Lamb's 

 Wool ; fineness, iveight, and value. Cloth exhibited. , 



In the year 1788, I began to build a country-bouse, to which was attached a 

 small portion of land. This land was high, of a thin staple, dry, unsheltered, and, 

 consequently, unproductive; notwithstanding which, from its situation, it had borne 

 an exorbitant price. Such as it was, however, I was obliged to stock it; and I 

 accordingly put on it some cows, and sheep of the same breed as those with which 

 it had been before depastured, and which were of the Wiltshire race. It was not 

 }ong, however, before I discovered, that a cow was, in every possible form, ruinous 

 to those whose avocations would not permit them constantly to superintend the 

 application of its produce ; and that the sheep would not reimburse the rent of the 

 soil. By degrees, I parted with my cows and Wiltshire sheep, and substituted 

 some of the small breed of Portland. These succeeded well, and readily fattened 

 VOL. v. 3 K 



