324 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



to modern times the unrivalled race of the Merino. The 

 limited region of Italy, overrun as it repeatedly was, during 

 and after the times of the late Emperors, by hordes of barba- 

 rians, soon lost her pampered flocks, while the extended 

 regions of Spain, intersected in every direction by almost 

 impassable mountains, could maintain their more hardy race, 

 in defiance of revolution or change.* The conquest by the 

 Moors of a part of those fine provinces, so far from check ing, 

 served rather to encourage the production of fine wool. 

 They were not only enterprising, but highly skilled in the use- 

 ful arts, and carried on extensive manufactories of fine woolen 

 goods, which they exported to different countries. After 

 their expulsion in the 15th century, by Ferdinand and Isabella, 

 the Spaniards preserved these manufactures in part, and sedu- 

 lously cherished their fine flocks, and knowing the incompar- 

 able advantage they had in them, their sovereigns, except in 

 a few isolated instances, strictly prohibited their exportation. 

 EXPORTATION OF MERINOES FROM SPAIN. History asserts 

 that Henry VIII of England, by permission of Charles V, 

 imported 3000 sheep, but of what kind is not mentioned, they 

 having numerous varieties in Spain. If of the true Merino, 

 it will explain the superior quality of the English middle- 

 wools, the Ryeland, South Downs and some others. The 

 first well authenticated exportation of the Merino, was made 

 to Sweden in 1723, by Alstroemer, which solved the pro- 

 blem of the incapacity for sustaining their character, on rough 

 fare and in a high northern latitude. Lasteyrie, who wrote 

 50 years after the experiment had been tried, speaks of their 

 improvement both in carcass and the quality and quantity of 

 fleece. The next exportation was made to Saxony, in 1765, 

 and consisted of 105 rams and 114 ewes, but from what 

 flocks they were taken, history nowhere mentions. A second 

 exportion to that country, was made in 1778, of 110 that 



* Whatever distrust may be attached to these scraps of History, which appa- 

 rently establish the remote antiquity of the Merino; this much is absolutely cer- 

 tain, that they are a race whose qualities are inbred to an extent surpassed by no 

 others. They have been improved in the general weight and evenness of their 

 fleece, as in the celebrated flock of Rambouillet ; in the uniform and excessive 

 fineness of fibre as injthe Saxons, and in their form and feeding qualities in various 

 countries ; but there has'never yet been deterioration either in quantity or quality 

 of fleece or carcass wherever transported, if supplied with suitable food and atten- 

 tion. Most sheep annually shed their wool if undipped ; while the merino retains 

 its fleece, sometimes for five years, when allowed to remain unshorn. This we 

 conceive affords conclusive evidence of long continued breeding among them- 

 selves, by which the very constitution of the wool-producing organs beneath the 

 skin, have become permanently changed, Jind this property is transmitted to a great 

 extent even among the crosses, thus marking them as an ancient and peculiar 

 race. 



