CHAPTER VI 



MEDIUM-TAILED CONTINENTAL AND 

 MEDITERRANEAN BREEDS 



Of all the Continental breeds of medium-tailed — 

 as distinct from fat-tailed and long-tailed — sheep, 

 perhaps the best-known and most important is the 

 merino (pi. vii. fig. i), which although originally, 

 as indicated by its name, a native of Spain, has 

 been acclimatised and established in nearly all the 

 sheep-breeding countries suited to its existence, 

 and is one of those which supplies the bulk of 

 the wool-produce of the world at the present day, 

 if, indeed, it does not completely surpass all other 

 breeds in this respect. 



As regards the spread and dispersal of the 

 merino type, it may be mentioned that in the latter 

 part of the eighteenth century the Spanish flocks 

 produced more wool than the factories of the 

 country could work up, and, for a time at any rate, 

 the surplus stock was sold off and exported. In 

 the year 1783, for instance. King Louis XVI. pur- 

 chased a large estate at the village of Rambouillet, 

 some forty miles west of Paris, where he established 

 an extensive merino-farm. Other flocks of selected 



