OVIS ARIES. 



try, and various rights and immunities connected with the 

 pasturage of the flocks. The system is opposed to the true 

 interests of Spain. A change of pasture may be required for 

 the flocks in the drier countries at certain seasons, but the 

 periodical migration of so vast a body of sheep cannot be 

 necessary to the extent to which it takes place. Enormous 

 abuses are committed on the cultivated country as they pass 

 along. A fourth part of the year consumed in travelling 

 must be prejudicial to the health of the animals in a greater 

 degree than the benefits they derive from a change of pas- 

 turage. A prodigious mortality accordingly takes place 

 among these sheep, and more than half the lambs are volun- 

 tarily killed, in order that the others may be brought to ma- 

 turity. The sale of the lamb-skins, which form a subject of 

 export to other countries, is indeed a source of profit, but 

 nothing equal to what the rearing of the animals to their 

 state of maturity would produce. That these extensive mi- 

 grations are necessary to preserve the fineness of the wool is 

 thought to be an error. Attention to breeding and rearing 

 would more certainly produce this effect than a violent 

 change of place. In Spain itself there are numerous flocks 

 of stationary Merinos, whose wool is of all the fineness re- 

 quired, and in other countries, where the sheep are never 

 moved off the farms that produce them, wool is produced su- 

 perior to that of the migratory flocks of Spain. The system, 

 however, is of great antiquity, and is so riveted in the habits 

 of this ignorant and intractable people, that it is likely to be 

 one of the last of those ancient abuses which will yield to the 

 desire of change which at this moment agitates the feelings 

 of men in this distracted country. The Spaniards long pre- 

 served the monopoly of this race of sheep with jealous care, 

 but other countries at length were able to carry off the Gold- 

 en Fleece of Spain, and the Merino race is now spread over 

 the greater part of Europe and America. 



All the best varieties of sheep have been introduced into 

 the United States, where the raising of sheep, both for the 

 profits of carcass and wool, is a highly productive branch of 

 agriculture. Immense numbers are raised in the high and 

 cool districts in Northern Pennsylvania, New York, and the 

 Eastern States, and various American agricultural periodicals 

 contain valuable observations in regard to sheep in the United 

 States. 



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