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country. And we have ourselves seen in Vermont a flock of 

 sheep, the result of a cross between some grade Oxford Down 

 ewes and a superior Merino buck, which for evenness of form, 

 compactness, a proper bony structure, quality of flesh, and 

 thrift, combined with great weight and fineness of fleece, as 

 well as an even distribution of wool over the whole body, can 

 hardly be excelled. The cross in this case was evidently a 

 good one. 



The same experiment has been tried with Merinos and South 

 Downs, with marked success. Mr. Randall, in his Sheep- 

 Husbandry, gives an account of his own experience in this 

 matter. He says : — " Finding it difficult to obtain Down ewes 

 of the proper quality, I obtained a small, compact, exceedingly 

 beautiful, fine and even-fleeced Down ram, and crossed him 

 with a few large-sized Merino ewes. The half blood ewes 

 were bred to a Merino ram, and also their female progeny, and 

 so on. The South Down form, and disposition to take on fat 

 manifested itself, to a perceptible extent, in every generation 

 which I bred, and the wool of many of the sheep in the third 

 generation (| blood Merino and j blood South Down) was very 

 even, and equal to medium, and some of them to good medium 

 Merino. Their fleeces were lighter than the full-blood Merino, 

 but increased in weight with each succeeding cross back to- 

 wards the latter. Their mutton of the first, and even of the 

 second cross, was of beautiful flavor — and it retained some of 

 the superiority of South Down mutton to the last." 



An experiment, tried by Mr. Randall, of crossing the Me- 

 rino and Leicester did not succeed so well. He produced a 

 " showy and profitable sheep, and well calculated to please the 

 mass of farmers*" But he says : — " Their fleeces lacked even- 

 ness — their thighs remaining disproportionately coarse and 

 hairy ; and making up my mind that this would always be a 

 tendency of the sheep of this cross, I abandoned them without 

 further experiment." The cross was evidently too violent. 



In some parts of Massachusetts, and in the other New Eng- 

 land States, especially INIaine, New Hampshire and Vermont, 



