HIS MAJESTY*S FINE WOOLED SPANISH SHEEP. ^77 



IX. 



A Report of the State of his Majejlfs Flock of Fine Wooled 

 Spanijh Sheep, for the year ending Michaelmas, 1803. By 

 the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. P. R. S. 

 &c. &c. From the printed Copy comnmnieated by the Author* 



1 HE wether lambs of the laft year having been fold in their State of his Ma- 

 wool, and the rams wool retained, in order that two years growth '^^^"l'}^^^ ***" 

 • ,,, 1^,-, J a Spanifli iheep* 



might be prepared for fale together, his Majefty's Spanifli flock June i8oa. 



confided, when fliorn in June 1802, of ninety-fix ewes only ; 

 the fleeces of thefe, after having been waflied on the flieeps* 

 backs as ufual, weighed as follows: 



In wool, as fliorn from the flieep - - 352 lbs. 



Lofs in fcowering , - - - 96 



Amount of fcowered wool - - - 256 

 This wool, when forted, produced as follows : 



Prime wool, or R. 



221 lbs, at OS. 9d. 



£.63 10 



9 



Choice locks, or F, 



32 3 6 



- 5 12 







Fribs, or T. 



3 1 9 



- 5 



3 



•£'.69 8 

 After deducing the expence of forting and fcowering, at 

 the high rate which an individual who is not a manufadlurer 

 rauft pay for thefe procefles, this wool is worth about 51. a 

 tod, or 43/. 5s. a pack, as clipped from the flieeps' back. 



The prime wool was purchafed by John Maitland, Efq. Sale of the 

 member of parliament for Chippenham, whofe mercantile ^°°'» 

 houfe, efl:abliflied for more than a century, has always dealt 

 largely in the importation of Spanifli wool, and who from the 

 flrft introdudion of Merino flieep into this country by the King 

 in the year of 1787, has uniformly given the moft liberal and 

 zealous aid to the promotion of his Majefty's patriotic views, 

 though doubtful in the beginning of the ultimate fuccefs of the 

 project. 



* For the original proje^l of this important undertaking and its 

 fubfequent progrefs, fee the former reports by the fame Right Hon. 

 Gentleman, inferted in our Journal, quarto, vol. IV. p. 289, and 

 9^avo, vol. V. p. G5. 



u 



