PEESENT SPANISH MERINOS. 17 



Ohio, made with, a view to importations and directed to the 

 Spanish Minister ia Washington, in 1852, that functionary 

 caused inquiry to be made in relation to the existing condition 

 of the flocks of Spain. The statements sent hack, in 1854, 

 appear to have been derived from the Spanish "General 

 Association of Wool Growers." The substance of them is 

 condensed into the following paragraph : 



"Although it is certain that, in the war of Independence, 

 a great number of the said flocks, [the choice Transhumantes 

 of Estremadura and Leon, such as the Infantado, Paular, 

 Guadeloupe, ISTegretti, Escurial, Montarco, etc.,] were de- 

 stroyed, and others diminished and divided, it is equally 

 certain that they stUl exist in their majority and with the 

 same good qualities which formerly made them so desirable 

 and necessary. If, therefore, as it appears from the commu- 

 nication which has given rise to this report, the wool growers 

 of the United States should have a desire and want to 

 purchase fine sheep, 1/h.ej may come sure they will not be 

 disappointed." 



Then foUows an extended list of flocks with the names of 

 their owners.* The Escurial, the Negretti and the Arriza, 

 are the only ones admitted to have been lost. 



Conceding to these statements the merit of entire candor, 

 they simply show that the Spaniards place a very different 

 estimate on their present sheep from that placed on them by 

 American breeders. The late John A. Taintor, Esq., o, 

 Connecticut, who seven times visited Europe to buy sheepf 

 carefully examined the flocks of Spain with an earnest wish 

 to find superior animals in them for importation to the United 

 States. He wrote to me in 1862, that the Spanish sheep 

 " were so small, neglected and miserable, that he would not 

 take one of them as a present."f In 1860 a gentleman of 

 Estremadura, whose flock Mr. Taintor could not visit when 

 in Spain, sent him a number of fleeces as samples; and one of 

 these Mr. Taintor forwarded to me. It weighed, in the dirt, 

 5 lbs. 11 oz. The wool was about as long as ordinary 

 American Merino wool, was not very even in quality, and 

 was scarcely middling in point of fineness! Mr. William 

 Chamberlain, of Red Hook, Kew York, the weU known 



* Scarcely any of these are the ancient owners, or those who held the flocks 

 when the war " of Independence " commenced. 



t See his letter to me in my Report on Fine-Wool Husbandry in Transactions 

 of N. Y. State Agricultural Society for 1861. (The Report was made early in 1862 

 and will hereafter be cited as of that year.) 



