No. 216.] 255 



this country, where climate and price for the very finest quality will 

 never pay. The finest wool I ever saw in my life were from Meri- 

 nos belonging to the Dutchess de Caylus, dure amie, of Louis 

 XVIIIth. She had permission to cull the Rambouillet flock for 

 the finest wool, and bred for no other purpose than to surpass every- 

 thing for fineness hitherto produced, which she effected. I had an 

 excellent opportunity of examining these sheep. I had them on a 

 large table, and studied them in every way. The wool surpassed in 

 fineness anything I ever saw, but the animals were weakly in con- 

 stitution, small in carcass and in weight, and when sent to the an- 

 nual show for the premium, they were conveyed in low carts with 

 springs, and in very cold weather w^ere actually clothed like horses. 

 The study and inspection of these sheep afforded me considerable 

 instruction. 



I continue to keep up a large correspondence in this country and 

 Europe, eagerly in search of every new fact that may be useful to 

 us in practice. I have never read any work entire on sheep pub- 

 lished in the United States. What I have given here is all my owHj 

 and from notes. 



