THE AMERICAN MERINO. 197 



especially a wool sheep, although nine-tenths of the American mutton 

 is from sheep of more or less Merino blood. The Merino is well fitted 

 for hilly or mountainous sections of the country, and are bred largely in 

 Vermont, western New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, from which places 

 many thousands are shipped to Texas, the western plains and to 

 California. Many are sent to Australia, where they are considered as 

 the best fine wool sheep in the world. Some of the rams of this 

 breed have been held as high as $25,000 and sold for $10,000 each, 

 and as an instance of the effect upon the market values of farm 

 animals of the vagaries of fashion, sheep of this same breed have since 

 then been sold for the value of their pelts. 



The American Merino originated from the Spanish Merinos, some 

 thousands of which were imported many years ago, and by long 

 continued careful breeding it has become the first sheep of its class 

 in the world. Mr. Hammond and another Vermont farmer, Mr. 



MERINO HAM AND EWE. 



Atwood, deserve the greatest credit for establishing this breed, which 

 is really the basis of the native sheep and wool interest of this country. 

 The Merino is used for improving the common Mexican and Texan 

 sheep, of which flocks of several thousands are kept all over the 

 plains from Texas to California, and as far north as Wyoming and 

 Montana. Its blood is more or less mingled with the forty million of 

 sheep which now exist in this country, and its value for improving 

 and increasing our production of wool can scarcely be estimated in 

 figures. While I think the South Down is a better mutton sheep, 

 yet there is no other sheep in existence but the Merino that can 

 furnish us with the fine wool we require for our woolen manufacture. 

 In choosing sheep the farmer must of course take this fact into account, 

 because in most cases it is the wool which gives him the profit from 

 his flock. 



