10 SKIN — FOLDS OR WEINKLES. 



latter for the more elevated and sterile ones. They bear 

 the same relation to each other in this particular that is 

 reciprocally borne by the Short-Horn and Devon cattle. Of 

 the crosses between them, I shall have occasion to speak 

 hereafter. 



The Skik. — The skin should be of a deep, rosy color. 

 The Spaniards justly regarded this a point of much 

 importance, as indicative of the easy-keeping and fattening 

 properties of the animal, and of a healthy condition of the 

 system. The skin should be thinnish, mellow, elastic, and 

 particularly loose on the carcass. A white skin, when the 

 animal is in health, or a tawny one, is rarely found on a 

 high bred Merino. A thick, stiff, inelastic skin, like that found 

 on many badly bred French sheep, is highly objectionable. 



Folds or "Wrinkles." — The Spanish, French and 

 German breeders approved of folds in the skin, considering 

 them indications of a heavy fleece. The French have bi-ed 

 them over the entire bodies of many of their sheep. To this 

 extent, and especially when prominent, fii'm to the feel, and 

 incapable of being drawn smooth under the shears, they are 

 an unmitigated nuisance, both in appearance and reality. If 

 they bear additional wool, this is countei'-balanced by its 

 defective quality on the upper edges of the folds and the great 

 unevenness they thereby give the fleece ; and were this 

 otherwise, the additional amount would not half compensate 

 for the loss of time in shearing, in the "catching" weather of 

 the spring, when good shearers are so difficult to obtain. It 

 would be vastly more economical to keep one or two per cent. 

 more sheep, to obtain the same amount of wool. But I must 

 confess that among the thousands of these disfigured animals 

 which I have examined, I never yet saw one which presented 

 the maximum of .both length and density of wool, or yielded 

 the maximum in weight of fleece. For reasons which I 

 cannot explain, the wool, though often very thick between the 

 folds, is never very long; and it is usually comparatively 

 loose, dryish and light as well as coarse, on the outer edges 

 of the folds. 



A wide dew-lap, plaited or smooth, single or branching 

 into two parts imder the jaws, with "the cross" on the 

 brisket, were aU that the older breeders of Merinos desired 

 in this way, on ewes. To these might be added moderate 

 corrugations on the neck of the ram. Now, fashion calls for 



