51 8 History of the Author's 



shewn that the wool of many of those of this race is comparatively coarse, even in 

 those individuals, in which the fleece afterwards acquires the finest quality ; and the 

 cloth which I have at various times had made, as well as that which I have now 

 the honour to exhibit, fully pnfiyes that the fleeces of others may be profitably em- 

 ployed in this way. The wool is also in general excellent fo; Salisbury flannel, 

 and the coarser sort for the manufacture of hats. Mr. Tolleit has done me the 

 favour to present me with a pair of warm stockings, softer than silu, mufle of the 

 wool of his Merino lambs. On the other hand, Lord Somervilk exhibited last 

 year, at the annual meeting of the Bath Society, a piece of cloth manufactured by 

 Mr. Joyce, from the wool of his shearling Merinos undipped when lambs, which 

 was of excellent quality. Should this be found to be uniformly the case, much 

 trouble and expense might be saved to the grower. The lambs, if bathed in arsenic 

 water, would be tolerably freed from the tick, and possibly guarded against the fly ; 

 and, according to the opinion of the above nobleman, they would be wo ih three 

 or four shillings a head more, in point of carcase, for having been unshorn during 

 the winter. The French have proved that no loss of wool is sustained by leaving 

 it on the lamb ; but in the Merino breed it has been supposed most advantageous 

 to reduce the fleece about an ounce, by clipping off the dirty and ragged ends of 

 the wool. No such management is, however, necessary in the Merino-Ryeland 

 lambs, the wool of which is rarely shaggy Hke that of the pure race. It would be 

 easy, in looking over the lambs about the end of July, to distinguish the coarse 

 from the finer, to shear the former, and leave the latter unshorn, for cloth, till the 

 following year. 



My lambs have always been shorn, unwashed, at the end of July, or beginning 

 of August, and have not appeared to suffer any injury. If they are washed in 

 arsenic water in the manner proposed, they will, probably, not require any subse- 

 quent ablution in order to guard them against infection, or the effects of unclean- 

 liness. 



