SHEEP. 



were confined to the coarfe-wooUed (heep, while the moUes 

 eves, or fine-wooUed flocks of antiquity, were always houfed. 



The experiment of Columella's uncle afcertains the early 

 introduftion of fine-woolled flieep into Spain. Having 

 procured fome wild African ram5 at Cadiz of a coarfe 

 fleece, but of an admirable colour, he gave them to fome 

 fine-woolled ewes, and the male progeny being again given 

 to Tarentine ewes, the offspring, with their defcendants, 

 united the paternal colour with the peculiar foftnefs of the 

 maternal fleece. Columella's uncle refided in Boetica, 

 which comprehended the modern Eftramadura ; and as 

 Columella flourifhed under the emperor Claudius, the 

 Tarentine breed mull have been introduced into that pro- 

 vince at the commencement of the Chriftian cr.i. Whatever 

 was the peculiar colour which the elder Columella intro- 

 duced by means of African rams into his Tarentine flock, 

 we may conclude that the fame fuccefsful expedient was 

 employed by other agriculturalifts of Bcetica, to convert 

 thefe coarfe into fine-woolled breeds, and to commu- 

 nicate the pureil white to the black or parti-coloured 

 native flocks, which, according to Pliny, were common in 

 Spain. The original intermixture of diftinft breeds of 

 native Spanifh fheep vi\\\\ the Tarentine in different parts 

 of Spain, may be inferred from other circumflances : each 

 cavana, or flock, forms a dillinA breed ; and the Nigrette 

 no more refembles the Paulac, than the Merino South Down 

 refembles the Merino Cheviot. The genuine unmixed 

 defcendants of the Tarentine breed would have preferved 

 ©ne uniform charafter ; but the native flocks crofled with 

 Tarentine rams would retain their diitinftive varieties, and 

 tranfmit them to each cavana. 



That the Merino is a mixed race, feems to be further 

 indicated by the more tender conftitutions of the fine- 

 woolled flocks of antiquity. Of thefe, the Tarentine were 

 moft celebrated in Italy, and the Milefian in Afia Minor. 

 They were termed pellitae and tefta; oves, from the cover- 

 ings of Ikin with which they were clothed to defend 

 the fleece. They were denominated alfo molles oves, not 

 only from the foftnefs of the fleece, but from the delicacy 

 of the conftitution. They were always fed in the houfe ; 

 and though fatisficd with brambles, or the coarfefl: food, 

 they are dcfcribed as a moit voracious breed : a diminution 

 of their allowance from the fraud of fervants, or the parfi- 

 mony of the owner, was attended with certain deitruiSion 

 to the flock. (Plin. lib. viii. cap. 47.) As there was no 

 fale for the lambs, nor any profit from the milk of a 

 Tarentine flock, half the lambs were dcftroyed at the birth. 

 The ram-lambs were chiefly reared, and were killed at two 

 years, when their pelts fold to the merchant at an advanced 

 price, on account of the beauty of the pile. This breed 

 demanded conltant care, when in the fields, to preferve their 

 coverings from being torn, and the fleeces deilroyed. At 

 home they required even greater care than abroad, as they 

 were not daily conducted to their paltures. They were 

 frequently uncovered and cooled for refrefliment. The 

 ftaples of the fleece were opened and difparted, and were 

 frequently moiftcncd with wine and oil. The whole flock 

 was waflied three times a-year, when the weather was warm. 

 The ilables were frequently fwept, cleaned, and fumigated : 

 for thefe different offices two fhepherds were conftantly re- 

 quired for every hundred Ihcep. 



The cxceflive care belloweit on thefe flocks by the nations 

 of antiquity, fhews in what ellimation their fleeces were 

 held ; and though fuch attention is remote from modern 

 praAice, we are fully convinced that, by fclefting the very 

 finefl and fofteft Merino flocks, and covering the wool, and 

 frequently anointing and walhing, it would give to the 



pile that degree of foftnefi which is fo much wanted in the 

 manufafture of fhawls, and other coflly articles of luxury, 

 but which we feek for in vain m the fineft fleeces of modern 

 Europe. However expenfive fuch attention might prove, 

 we have no doubt that, on a limited fcale, it would well 

 repay the labour of the judicious experimentalift, as the 

 wool would be worth more than 7,0s. per pound, could it be 

 made to equal that of India in foftnefs. It would appear 

 that the Tarentine breed were felefted with much care for 

 breeding, and every expedient adopted, which was proved by 

 experience to attenuate and foften the pile. The tranfition of 

 thefe delicate animals into the Merinos of Spain, which arc 

 a hardy race, can only be explained by fuppofnig that other 

 agriculturalifts had imitated Columella, and obtained a fine- 

 woolled race, by croffing their native breeds with the more 

 delicate animals frcm Italy. The beginning of this im- 

 provement is indeed defcribed by Strabo in the reign of 

 Tiberiut;: he informs us that the inhabitants of Truditania 

 had formerly imported many garments, but that their wool 

 in his time furpaffed that of the Coraxi, and excelled it in 

 beauty fo much, that a talent, equal to two hundred 

 guineas, was the ftated price of a ram to breed from ; and 

 that they excelled alfo in the fabrics which the Sal- 

 tiatse manufactured. Truditania, according to Strabo, com- 

 prehended the province of Boetica, from the GuadMMia to 

 the confines of Lufiiania, and fouthward to Gibraltar, 

 and eaftward to Toledo. The wool of the Coraxi, with 

 which Strabo compares that of this part of Spain, we are 

 informed, in his account of Pontus, was from the foft- 

 woolled Milefian fheep. Such high prices as a talent mufl 

 have been produced by a very general demand for rams, 

 not for the ufe of the Tarentine flocks, which could occafion 

 no fuch competition, but for the purpofe of crofling the 

 indigenous breeds of the province, which, from the earlieft 

 period, appears to have abounded in fheep. 



The travelling flocks were not at that time introduced, as 

 the mountainous regions had been till then infefled by native 

 as well as Lufitanian robbers, whom the Romans diflodged 

 from their villages, and difperfed into cantons. (Diodorus 

 Siculus, fib. V. cap. 32.) The Moorifh looms of Anda- 

 lufia and Catalonia, and thofe of the Chriftians at Segovia, 

 in the 13th century, mull have been fupplied by the fine- 

 woolled flocks introduced by the Romans. The v.icant 

 mountains, when cleared of banditti, offered a vafl rang* 

 of pallure from Eftramadura northward, towards Galicia 

 and the Afl.urias. A fimilar opportunity occurred to efta- 

 blilh or renew the inltitution of travelling flocks when the 

 Chriftians defcended, in the middle of the 13th century, to 

 occupy the conquered provinces of Andalufia and Murcia. 

 After that time the travelling flocks became fo well efla- 

 bliflied, that the mentargo, or tolls, on their paflage 

 through the mountains, from province to province, the 

 fervicio, or tax to the crown, and the laws of tlie mella, 

 were inipofed or ratified by government, in the middle of 

 the 15th century, before the Moorifli kingdom of Grenada 

 had been finally reduced. 



We are thus enabled from hilfory to trace theintroduftion 

 and eftablifhment of the Merino race of flieep in Spain, from 

 which, or from their defcendants, nearly all the manufac- 

 tories of fine cloth in Europe are at prelent fupplied with 

 wool. See Wool. 



The native breeds of Bcetica were originally and gra- 

 dually converted into fine-woolled animals, by repe.ited 

 crofles with the Tarentine flocks, and thus an immenfe num. 

 ber of hardy flieep, producing a moll valuable pile, were 

 fpread over the country, and fnrvived the fuceeflive cun. 

 quefts of the Goths and Vandals, and the protracted war- 

 fare 



