THE SHEEP 



I 'S3 



ancestors of the Merinos came from England, 

 for up to a certain point these sheep have char- 

 acteristics that exactly correspond with the 

 short-haired sheep of England, especially in 

 quantity and quality. There was long a keen 

 rivalry between the wools of Spain and Eng- 

 land, so that Henry II, king of England, de- 



each, in order that there might be no famine on 

 the way. Each band, or Iniop, was led by five 

 or si.\ men with their dngs ; the latter serx'ed 

 (inly to keep off the woh-es, always following the 

 flock at some distance. No one had the right 

 to protect his property from the devastation 

 caused by the migrating sheep. If it pleased 



creed, in 1189, that all cloth manufactured the slicpliei'ds to cam|i with their flock on some 



fertile pro|iert\', the owner had to resign himself 



to the ruin of his rro|is. Agrit-ullui'e 



was absolulelv impossible m 



the \'icinity of these sheep 



walks. 



I'owards the close of 

 the eighteenth cen- 

 tury an edict of the 

 ;ing of Spain ga\e 

 to the owners of 

 such propei't)' the 

 right to inclfise 

 their lands and 

 thus save them 

 from the depreda- 

 tions of the sheep; 

 1) u t it was not 

 until the nine- 

 teenth c e n t u r v 

 that a ro\-al de- 

 cree gave back to 

 the proprietors, 

 great and small, 

 all rights to the 

 control of their 

 land. That was 



from Spanish wool should be publicly burned 



In ancient times it was the cus 

 torn to take the sheep in great 

 flocks to summer pasturag 

 on the mountains in 

 northern Spain, brinj. 

 ing them back in 

 winter to t h e i r 

 southern homes. 

 This practice be- 

 came general in 

 the fifteenth cen- 

 tury as a conse- 

 quence of the 

 great wars of that 

 period, which 

 obliged the own- 

 ers of vast flocks 

 to save them from 

 the eye of the 

 enemy. Princes, 

 nobles, and con- 

 vents alone had 

 the right to make 

 these migrations. 

 As many of them 

 owned the land 



A M\D\&^SCAK Shi i i 



the end, in Spain, 



through which the flocks traveled they derived of the raising of Merino sheci^ in \-ast num- 



a considerable revenue from this pri\'ilege. bers. Pastures were transformed into wheat 



Stone boundaries were set up in all directions, fields, vineyards, and olive orchards. The great 



marking the broad way through which the migrations became a thing of the past, and the 



sheep might pass. The width was usually Merino sheep have now been largely rejilaced 



about thirty-six yards, but in some places it by others that give more meat and remain on 



was nearly one hundred yards. On these paths the farms. 



the flocks and their shepherds alone had the Italy, also, had flocks which migrated to 



right of way, and the latter knew well how to the Apennines and the Abruzzo from the 



defend that right. plains of Apulia, and still has them, but they 



The great flocks, counting often eighty thou- never traveled such long distances as in Spain. 



sand animals, were divided into bands num- The south of France also has traveling flocks 



bering from one thousand to fifteen hundred which journey partly to the Pyrenees, but 



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