88 SOILS ADAPTED TO DIFFERENT BREEDS. 



more of the constituents of wool than will a single kind — 

 and consequently that a variety in it, tends to the development 

 of a heavier fleece. But abundance and richness of food, 

 when the Merino is compelled to accept them, aifect its 

 tissues as they do those of all other sheep, and more than 

 compensate for the want of variety. Removed from the 

 pastures of New England, or of North-eastern, Eastern and 

 Southern New York — grazing lands proper — to the rich 

 clover fields of Western New York, Ohio, etc., the Merino 

 increases considerably, both in size and weight of wool — and 

 it continues equally healthy. 



Soils. — ^The fertility of the soil is a consideration of weight 

 in selecting a breed of sheep to stock it, because on that 

 fertility depends the luxuriance, and, to some extent, the quality 

 of its vegetation. Its nature and condition in other 

 respects are also important. Habitual wetness of the 

 ground, from whatever cause it arises, is highly injurious to 

 most kinds of sheep, and particularly to upland ones. The 

 Merino cannot endure it; and wool growing can never be 

 profitably pursued on such lands. That mutton growing can, 

 is abundantly proved by the example of the English farmers 

 in Lincolnshire, Kent, etc. In such situations, the long- 

 wooled sheep are decidedly preferable. 



It is thought, in England, that an occasional or even 

 single visit to some fen or stagnant pool sometimes 

 communicates the fatal rot* to flocks of sheep. I never 

 have heard of an instance of this in the United States. In 

 our Northern and Eastern States I never have known the 

 most free access to swamps, pools, etc., to prove injurious to 

 sheep, provided they had abundant pasturage and pure water 

 without, and only entered the marshy lands voluntarily, as all 

 sheep will occasionally do in quest of a change of food. 

 Constant access to salt-marshes is considered actually 

 promotive of their health and thrift. I have received various 

 accounts of- fatal disorders attacking sheep in Texas, in 

 consequence of being kept on what are termed hog-wallow 

 prairies — low, flat, moist, very rich lands. I should expect 

 such results in large flocks restricted to such lands, in aU our 

 warm climates; and such pasturages wotild be decidedly 

 uncongenial to all the short-wooled varieties of sheep, in any 

 climate. 



* I speak of liver rot, not hoof rot. The names are sometimes confounded in our 

 Northern States where the former disease is mostly unknown. 



