72 FINENESS OF MEEINO WOOL. 



terminating abruptly like the forehead wool. The cheek and 

 forehead wool should meet unbroken immediately over the 

 eye and between it and the horn and ear.* But it must by 

 no means unite under the eye — though its outside ends may 

 touch there for a little way. The eye should have just naked 

 space enough about it to leave the sight unimpeded, without 

 any resort to the scissors. The nose should be covered with 

 short, soft, thick, perfectly white hair. Pale, tan-colored 

 spots or "freckles" about the mouth, and the same color on 

 the outer half of the ear,f are not objected to by the breeders 

 of the Paulars — but Infantado breeders usually prefer pure 

 white. Wool on the lower part of the front face, as is often 

 seen in the French Merinos, whether short or long, is 

 regarded as decidedly objectionable, and any wool which 

 obstructs the sight in any degree, is a fault. 



The cavities of the fleece at the arm-pits, at the base of the 

 scrotum, and inside of the arms and thighs, should be as small 

 as the proper freedom of movement admits. The scrotum 

 should be densely covered with wool to its lower extremity, 

 and the wool on the front of it should extend up so as to 

 unite with the belly wool. 



The wool should stand at right angles to the surface, 

 except on the inside of the legs and on the scrotum (and the 

 nearer it approaches doing so on the scrotum the better) ; it 

 should present a dense, smooth, even surface externally, drop- 

 ping apart nowhere ; and the masses of wool between those 

 natural cracks or divisions which are always seen on the 

 surface, should be of medium diameter. If they are too small, 

 they indicate a fineness of fleece which is incompatible with 

 its proper weight; if too large, they radicate coarse, harsh wool. 



Fineness. — "Without having regard to the present anom- 

 alous state of afiairs, which has temporarily so changed the 



* If it unites in a tliick, eolid mass of fall length, it is a beantirol and now rather 

 rare point. 



t These spots were hlgUy characteristic of several of the families of Merinos 

 originally imported from Spain ; and the lambs of^ome of them were occasionally 

 covered over the carcass at birth with larger spots of tne'same color, or of a deeper tawny 

 red. Sometimes the whole body was thus colored. But all these tints disappeared on 

 the body when the wool grew out, and were seen no more. Small black spots were 

 frequently seen about the months of Spanish sheep and larger ones on different parts of 

 the body, and coal-black lambs were sometimes yeaned. This color often fades but 

 never disappears. Black lambs are now exceedingly rare in pure American Merino 

 flocks, yet they continue to appear. They are always excluded from the flock to pre- 

 vent their increase, as they are regarded as nnsightly and their wool Js less valuable. 

 All the different colors above mentioned are inherited by the Spanish sheep from 

 their original stocks,— from the black, red, and tawny sheep which Plinyj Columella, 

 and other contemporaneous writers describe as existing in Spain about the opening of 

 the first century. 



