Mivino-Ryeland Breed of Sbrep, 525 



back to what we vere at the commencemcntof our experiments eight years before. 

 In a Merino-Ryeland ewe of the 3d crosSj the Spanish blood being as 48, and the 

 Leicester as before, 1 28, one cross of the latter will produce a fineness or diameter 

 cf filament as 88 ; vvhicli will be three-eighths coarser than the original Ryeland. If 

 the filament of the coarse ram be still larger, the deterioration of that of the pro- 

 geny will be greater in proportion. 



This reasoning corresponds with the experience which I have at various times- 

 unfortunately had from the casual union of my ewes with South Down, Wilts. 

 Dorset, and Leicester rams. In such cases, it will be best, as soon as possible, to 

 discard the bastard produce. 



The only chance of successfully attempting this end, will be after the filament of 

 the Merino-Ryeland ewe shall, by long attention to that point, have lost strength by 

 over-refinement : in which case, a cross of the best and finest-woolled South 

 Down ram, might possibly improve the carcase, and reduce the wool to the same 

 standard of fineness as the native Spanish piles. 



■ Among the different means of improving a flock, nothing seems to promise 

 greater benefit than a division into classes, according to age and strength. The 

 robust almost always harass the weaker, and drive them from their food. This 

 happens more especially to the rams, whom the sexual appetite renders otherwise 

 mischievous, and to whom the horn gives a greater power of annoyance than to 

 the other sheep. Wherever, therefore, a separation is practicable, it should always 

 be adopted. 



In a preceding part of this work I have mentioned the great value which the 

 antients, unskilled in the art of dying, attached to wool naturally coloured, A know- 

 ledge of this fact leads to the probable conclusion, that the celebrated Argonautic 

 expedition to Colchos had no other object than the acquisition of a breed of 

 sheep, whose fleeces were £fu9p«, rutila, or of a golden colour. Exclusively of their 

 cheapness, cloths so made would have much greater softness, lustre, and durability, 

 than those, which had undergone the repeated application of great he<^t, and the 

 corrosion of chemical mordants. M. Charles Pictet is, at this time, attempting to 

 renew, in his hybrid flock, these experiments of antiquity. I have had several 

 sheep with blackish, or reddish brown fleeces; and I have now a specimen of M. 

 Pictet's wool, of a rich medium between those hues. I fear, however, that we 

 •ould never insure an uniformity of tint, not only through the same flock, but in 



