THE MERINO BREED. 143 



the small extent of sheep pastures, and the habits of the 

 peasantry, have not heen favourable to any general system 

 of improvement applied to this race of Sheep. 



It is in the German States that the Merino race has been 

 the most widely diffused, and the most successfully culti- 

 vated. The Elector of Saxony, on the close of the Seven 

 Years' War in 1765, obtained from the King of Spain 100 

 Merino rams and 200 ewes, taken from the best flocks of 

 Spain. He kept them partly pure on his own farms near 

 Dresden, and he partly distributed them throughout the 

 country, for the improvement of the native Saxon Sheep. It 

 was soon found that the race preserved all its properties, 

 and was capable, under skilful treatment, and by due selec- 

 tion of the breeding parents, of surpassing, in the excellence 

 of the fleece, the stock from which it had been derived. The 

 most judicious means were employed to extend this branch 

 of husbandry, by the establishment of schools for the instruc- 

 tion of shepherds, by the circulation of tracts, and otherwise, 

 and very soon the wools of Saxony became the finest in 

 Europe. The Saxon sheep-masters bestow a care in the 

 selection of the Sheep producing the finest wool, which has 

 no parallel in any other country. The best are reserved 

 for propagating the race, and by this means the characters 

 which indicate the property of producing fine wool, are main- 

 tained or increased in the progeny. This is an application 

 of the true principles of breeding ; and the care with which 

 the system is pursued, is the main cause of that unrivalled 

 excellence to which the fine-woolled Sheep of Saxony have 

 attained. The Sheep are kept in houses during the winter ; 

 and the general treatment of them, with respect to food, is 

 adapted to promote the fineness of the fleece, the production 

 of mutton being regarded as of secondary moment. 



Prussia followed Saxony in the same course of improve- 

 ment. In the year 1768, M. Fink, near Halle, in the Duchy 

 of Magdeburg, introduced some Saxo-Merino Sheep, and ten 

 years later several pure Merinos from Spain. His endea- 



