42 SILESIAN MERINOS. 



eat what hay they wish at night. He considers this more 

 profitable than devoting more of his high-priced lands to 

 pasturage, and quite as well if not better for the sheep. 



The carcasses of his sheep are round and symmetrical. 

 Some of them are taller in proportion to weight than is 

 desirable — ^because German breeders pay less attention to this 

 point — ^but this tendency could be readily changed without 

 going out of the flock for rams. The wool is of admirable 

 quality and uniformity, and opens most brilliantly on a mellow, 

 rose-colored skin. The fleece is very dark externally. 



Wherever it is most profitable to grow very fine wool, this 

 variety, or rather this family, ought to stand unrivaled. 

 Whether they have ever been tested under the common rough 

 usage of our country I am not advised. There is nothing in 

 their forms or general appearance to indicate that they would 

 not generally conform to it. They would doubtless lose 

 much of their external color and early maturity, and perhaps 

 something of their ultimate size. But the same would be 

 true of all the summer-housed, high kept and carefully 

 tended Merinos of our country. 



