CHAPTER II. 



THE VARIETIES AND BREEDS OF SHEEP. 



Such a course of culture as has been described, of course, 

 could uot fail to establish in time a large number of varie- 

 ties of sheep. Individual tastes and preferences; the varied 

 practice of individuals; many men being of many minds; 

 differences of climate, of pasture, of soils even, and other 

 environments, it may be sure must necessarily lead to the 

 growth of distinct varieties of sheep. This happened some 

 centuries ago, and even then the germs of the present exist- 

 ing breeds became differentiated as local varieties, best 

 adapted to the conditions in which they were bred, fed, and 

 reared. For we must take notice that these three elements 

 of variation in sheep are profoundly effective in fixing types 

 on the animals concerned. We may take the English breeds 

 as the leading example of this principle, as to numbers of in- 

 stances, w r hile the American Merino and that of the French, 

 the Spanish and the Saxony sheep of this class, not being 

 missed, but taken as included in our own bright example 

 of successful breeding, the American Merino. Doubtless we 

 may not easily think too highly of the Spanish Merino from 

 which our native breed was first originated, for this breed 

 may be said, as was said by the great Napoleon of the pyra- 

 mids of Egypt, "forty centuries look down" upon us, when 

 we consider the Merino of Spain. But as that unfortunate 

 nation has gone down in the scale of history, after a glorious 

 past, which we can never forget, so the Spanish Merino 

 sheep, greatly useful in its time, has gone out of history, 

 which has swiftly passed on before it and left it to be for- 

 gotten as the present factor in the study of the modern 

 sheep. 



THE AMERICAN MERINO. 



Let us begin our classification with this remarkable 

 example of American enterprise and skillful culture, and 

 the effect of its environments upon this susceptible animal. 



