SHEEP. 



Were confined to the coarfe-wooUed fheep, while the molles 

 oves, or fine-vvoolled flocks of antiquity, were always houfed. 



The experiment of Columella's uncle aicertains the early 

 introduftion of fine-woolled flieep into Spain. Having 

 procured fome wild African rams 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 rehded in Bcetica, 

 whicli 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 Chriftiaii era. 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 Bostica, to convert 

 thefe coarfe into iiin'-wooUed breeds, and to commu- 

 nicate the purell 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 Spaniih fliecp with the Tarentine in different parts 

 of Spain, may be inferred from other circumftances ; each 

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

 no more rcfembles the Paulac, than the Merino South Down 

 refembles the Merino Cheviot. The genuine unmixed 

 defcendants of the Tarentine breed would iiave preferved 

 ene uniform charafter ; but the native flocks crofled with 

 Tarentine rams would retain their dittinftive varieties, and 

 tranfmit them to each cavana. 



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

 indicated by the more tender conllitutions of the fine- 

 woolled flocks of antiquity. Of thefe, the Tarentine were 

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

 They were termed pelliti and tefta: oves, from the cover- 

 ings of ikin with which tliey 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 conltitution. They were always fed in the houfe ; 

 and though fatisficd with brambles, or the coarfeft food, 

 they are defcribed as a molt voracious breed : a diminution 

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

 mony of the owner, was attended with certain deltriiftion 

 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 dellroyed 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. Tiiis breed 

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

 coverings from being torn, and tiie fleeces deltroyed. At 

 home tliey required even greater care than abroad, as they 

 were not daily conducted to their pallures. They were 

 frequently uncovered and cooled for refrefhment. The 

 ftaples of the fleece were opentd and difparted, and were 

 frequently moillcned with wine and oil. The whole flock 

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

 The (tables were frequently fwcpt, cleaned, and fumigated : 

 for thefe diflerent offices two flicpherds were conllantly re- 

 quired for every hundred Iheep. 



The exceflive care bellowed on tiiele flocks by the nations 

 of antiquity, Ihews in what ellimation their fleeces were 

 held ; and though fuch attention is remote from modern 

 practice, we are fully convinced that, by felefting the very 

 nneft and foftcd Merino flocks, and covering the wool, and 

 frequently anointing and walhing, it would give to the 



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

 manufafture of fhawls, and other cofl.ly articles of luxury, 

 but which we feek for in vain in the finefl: fleeces of modern 

 Europe. However expenfive fuch attention might prove, 

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

 repay tiie labour of the judicious experimentalift, as the 

 wool would be worth more than ^os. 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 are 

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

 agriculturahlls had imitated Columella, and obtained a fine- 

 woolled race, by crofling their native breeds with the more 

 delicate animals fi\ m Italy. The beginning of this im- 

 provement is indeed defcribed by Strabo in the reign of 

 Tiberius: he informs us that the inhabitants of Truditania 

 had formerly imported many garments, but that their wool 

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

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

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

 that they excelled alfo in the fabrics which the Sal- 

 tiatas manufaiitured. Truditania, according to Strabo, com- 

 prehended the province of BcEtica, from the Guadi^na to 

 the confines of Lufitania, 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- 

 wooUed Milefian flieep. Such high prices as a talent inuft 

 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 purpole of crofling the 

 indigenous breeds of the province, which, from the earlieft 

 period, appears to have abounded in flieep. 



The travelling flocks were not at that time introduced, as 

 the mountainous regions had been till then infelled by native 

 as well as Lufitanian robbers, whom the Romans diflodged 

 from their villages, and diiperfcd into cantons. ( Diodorus 

 Siculus, lib. v. cap. 32.) The Moorifli looms of Anda- 

 lufia and Catalonia, and thofc of the Chrillians at Segovia, 

 in tiie 13th century, mult have been fupphed by the fine- 

 woolled flocks introduced by the Romans. The vacant 

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

 of palture from Eltramadura northward, towards Galicia 

 and the Afturias. A llmilar opportunity occurred to cfta- 

 blilh or renew the intlitiition of travelling flocks when the 

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

 occupy the conquered provinces of Andalufia and Murcia. 

 After that time tiie travelling flocks became fo well clla- 

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

 through the mountains, trom province to province, the 

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

 were impofed or ratified by government, in the middle of 

 the 15th century, before the Moorifh kingdom of Grenada 

 had been finally reduced. 



We are thus enabled from hillory to trace the introduftion 

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

 which, or from their delcendants, nearly ail tlie mawufac- 

 torics of fine clolli in Europe are at prelent iupplied with 

 wool. Sec Wool. 



The native breeds of Boctica were originally and gra- 

 dually converted into fine-woolled animals, by repeated 

 croflcs with the Tarentine flocks, and thus an imninife num- 

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

 fprcad over the country, and lurvivcd the fuceeflivc con- 

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

 fare 



