134 [AsSEMBiLT 



free from dirt, in full possession of its felting properties, gives a more 

 permanent boily, and a better finish to cloth, than any wool which 

 can be produced. However, I do not expect to compete, as to fine- 

 ness, with those who have selected their flocks from different parts of 

 the United States, and where there can be no certainty as to the puri- 

 ty of the blood. 



Is there, then, any credit to be given to those who preserve the 

 pure original blood as it came direct from the northern country, or 

 shall all the credit be given to persons who speculate in the mattery 

 collecting their flocks from different parts of the United States. 



In order to show the benefit of using pure blood males upon dege- 

 nerated females, I give the results of my own experiments in ]846 

 and 1847. I purchased seventeen ewes of Saxon blood, light fleeces, 

 and of feeble constitutions; they formerly belonged to Mr. S. Mitch- 

 ell, who sold wool from his flocks to Samuel Lawrence, in 1843, for 

 fifty-six cents a pound, while thai from my yearlings sold at the same 

 time for fifty-three cents a pqund, after sampling it. Mr. Lawrence 

 told Mr. Mitchell that his wool was one of the finest lots in the 

 United States. 



I put the buck for which the American Institute gave me the pre- 

 mium in, 1846, with the 17 ewes. I obtained eleven ewe lambs. In 

 the summer after these were a year old, I sheared them when the 

 wool was just a year's growth and the average weight of their 

 fleeces was three pounds thirteen ounces each. After being fitted for 

 market it lost thirty-two and a quarter per cent, of its weight. I 

 then weighed the eleven ewes, and they averaged forty-nine pounds 

 eachj which would be eight pounds to one hundred pounds of car- 

 cass, and of that, five and an half pounds of wool to the 100 lbs. of 

 carcass, fit for manufacture. In the spring, when I bought my Sax- 

 ony flock, the weight of wool on them averaged only two pounds four 

 ounces each. This wool was sold to Mr. Lawrence for $1.12^ the 

 fleece, making the same difference in the two lots Mr. Lawrence did 

 in 1843. The half-bloods average fifty-two cents the fleece, more 

 than the full blood Saxon. This is the annual income over and 

 above the Saxon. 



J. N. BLAKESLES. 



Watertoum, Conn., Aug. 24, 1848. 



