SHEEP. 17 



the new race began to be understood. The movement, 

 once begun, gradually advanced; and additional spirit 

 was given to it by the great profits realised. 



Much of the success of our farmers, especially in the 

 neighbourhood of Paris, dates from this period. The 

 breeding of rams for propagating the race had become a 

 very lucrative business in the first years of the Eestora- 

 tion. A Kambouillet ram was sold for 3870 francs 

 (155) in 1825. The fact is, that while the indigenous 

 sheep gave barely a few pounds of coarse wool, the 

 merino fleece gave double or treble the weight of fine 

 wool of greater value. This profit was considerable ; it 

 appeared sufficient to our farmers, who could imagine 

 nothing beyond. Thus it was that the propagation of 

 merinos was considered in France as the supreme object 

 which rural economy had to attain in the rearing of 

 sheep. About one-fourth of the French sheep at the pre- 

 sent day consists of merinos and half-bred merinos ; the 

 rest have at the same time improved, both in carcass and 

 wool, simply by means of more skill in their management 

 and better food. Without fear of exaggeration, it may 

 be said that the income of France from sheep has quad- 

 rupled during the last hundred years, although the num- 

 ber of these animals has only doubled. This is no doubt 

 a considerable advance ; but we are now about to point 

 out a much greater, in comparing the history of the 

 French flocks for the last hundred years with that of the 

 English for the same period. 



England has always possessed a great many sheep ; 

 the British Isles were celebrated for this even in the time 

 of the Eomans. The primitive races lived in a wild state, 

 and their descendants are still to be found in the Welsh 

 mountains, the Cornish peninsula, and the Highlands of 



B 



