SHEEP 



567 



bouillets, Southdowns, Hampshires, Lin- 

 colns, Dorset Horns, Cheviots, and Lei- 

 cester. There are more Merinos raised 

 in the United States than of all other 

 breeds combined. Twenty-five years 

 ago, they probably constituted 95 per 

 cent of the flocks of the United States. 

 The decrease in the price of wool and 

 the growing taste for mutton in recent 

 years has resulted in greater attention 

 being given to the development of the 

 mutton breeds. At this time it is prob- 

 able that the Merinos do not make up 

 over 75 per cent of the flocks in the 

 United States. The mutton breeds are 

 becoming of increasing importance in 

 nearly all of the smaller farms in the 

 United States, especially in the East 

 and North. 



The various breeds of sheep may be 

 roughly classified as fine wool, medium 



Fig. 354 — 2-YEAR-OLD DELAINE MERINO RAM 



wool, and. coarse wool sheep. The fine 

 wools include the various Merinos and 

 Eambouillets. The medium or short 

 wools include the Southdown, Dorset, 

 Shropshire, Cheviot, Suffolk, Hamp- 

 shire, Oxford, Welsh and Tunis; and 

 the coarse or long wool, the Leicester, 

 Lincoln, Cotswold, Romney Marsh, and 

 Black Face Scotch or Highland. 



Merinos — The Merino sheep was 

 evolved in Spain, and has been reared 

 there for centuries. From Spain they 

 have been exported into the various 

 countries of Europe, United States, Aus- 

 tralia, etc. The first importation into 

 the United States was made in 1802 

 by Col. Davis Humphreys of Derby, 

 Connecticut. Under the influence of 

 American and French breeders, the old 

 Spanish Merino has been improved so 



that the forms now known in the United 

 States are the American Merino, the 

 Delaine Merino, and the French Merino 

 or Rambouillet. The Delaine Merino 

 has been evolved from the American 

 Merino and differs from it in the longer 

 fleece and improved mutton form. 



The American Merino is one of the 

 smallest breeds in the United States. 

 The ewes at maturity weigh from 90 

 to 125 pounds and the bucks, when in 

 good condition, from 140 to 175 pounds. 

 The skin of the Merino is characterized 

 by heavy folds, especially about the 

 neck; wool is fine and very dense. The 

 fleece will weigh 10 to 15 pounds in the 

 ewes and considerably more in the rams. 

 It is one of the hardiest sheep in the 

 United States and adapts itself to va- 

 rious conditions of climate and food 

 products better than any other breed. 

 It can be herded in flocks of thousands 

 where the mutton breeds cannot be suc- 

 cessfully herded in flocks of over 200. 



They are the sheep par excellence for 

 grazing under western conditions. They 

 do not become fully mature until the 

 age of three or four years, and their 

 feeding qualities are inferior to those 

 of the mutton breeds. The meat is lack- 

 ing in tenderness and flavor, and con- 

 tains a large proportion of bone to meat. 

 Within recent years mnny of the eastern 

 flocks of Merinos have been crossed with 

 the mutton breeds, for the purpose of 

 producing an all-around wool and mut- 

 ton sheep. 



The Wisconsin station found that if 

 Merino ewes were crossed with a pure 

 Shropshire buck and pure Shropshire 

 bucks were used thereafter on the grade 

 ewes, the progeny of the second and 

 third crossing could scarcely be distin- 

 guished from pure Shropshires. The 

 pure Merino produces the finest wool 

 and heaviest fleece in proportion to its 

 weight of any sheep in the country. 



Delaine Merinos — The Delaine Me- 

 rino has been produced from the Ameri- 

 can Merino. It has a larger carcass, 

 a better mutton form, is nearly free 

 from wrinkles and folds and carries a 

 longer fleece, though not quite as fine 

 nor as well glued together on the sur* 

 face as the American Merino. 



The chief sub-types of the Delaine 

 Merino are the Standard, the National 

 and the Improved Delaine. Closely re- 

 lated to these in their leading character- 

 istics are the Black Top Spanish Me- 

 rino, the Improved Black Top Merino, 



