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in 1802, says : ' Experience has demonstrated already, botb 

 at Windsor and Weybridge (the royal residence,) that Spanish 

 mutton" is of the best quality for a gentleman's table.' Mr. 

 Wilson, the present Professor of Agriculture in the Universi- 

 ty of Edinburgh, in a recent excellent paper on ' The various 

 breeds of Sheep in Great Britain,' furnished by him to the 

 Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, says : ' They (the Meri- 

 nos) are hardy, and not more subject to disease than our other 

 breeds ; ' they thrive well on moderate keep, and may be fed 

 up to 110 to 120 pounds weight at two years old ; the mutton 

 is considered to be of very good quality." 



The report of Tessier and Hazard, made to the Institute of 

 France, in the year eight of the Republic, shows that the 

 same opinion prevailed even thus early in France. They say : 

 * The experiments we had , formerly made in feeding Spanish 

 sheep have not been fully detailed. It has been undeniably 

 proved that all those animals were fattened,* and their flesh 

 was at last as delicate as that of any other breed of sheep.' — 

 Various French writers confirm these views. 



It is to be remembered that in England the Merino mutton 

 had to encounter long established and obstinate prejudices. — 

 Its people were accustomed to carcases of a peculiar form, fat 

 laid on in a particular way, and more of it in proportion to the 

 lean meat, than the Merino readily takes on. 



On the other hand, the great body of Americans are neither 

 accustomed to, nor do they choose, excessively fat fresh meats 

 of any kind, and particularly mutton. Most of them, after at- 

 tempting to eat well-cooked new Leicester or Dishley mutton, 

 with two and a half or three inches of outside fat, turn away 

 from it with loathing, or eat only the leaner parts. Yet 

 the English factory operative or farm laborer finds just what 

 he wants in that mutton, because its fat will in soups, etc., 

 convert a large amount of vegetables into more palatable and 

 nutritious food, and then it will go further in imparting the 

 effects of animal food than any other meat. 

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