50) FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 
trace out the modes and the results reached by the 
most noted breeders of these separate or mixed fami- 
lies. To attempt it without long and minute investi- 
gation, would be not only unfair, but excessively 
presumptuous; and even after the most careful exam- 
ination, it would be a very delicate affair, to say the 
least of it, to assume to sit In Judgment on the com- 
parative merits of flocks which are now keen competi- 
tors for public favor, and concerning which the 
opinions of the most intelligent and experienced 
flockmasters differ. Accordingly I shall waive it, 
after reserving to myself the right of selecting some 
examples when I come to discuss the subject of 
crossing. 
Suffice it to say, that each of the separate families 
and the crosses between them, or between them and 
other pure American Merino stocks, have improved 
enormously within twenty years. 
The American Merinos, the measurements, etc., of 
which I subjoin to Petri’s table, exhibit some of the 
marked changes which have taken place in the form 
of the breed, not only since their original importation, 
but within the last twenty years. And if that table 
had been more complete in wseful data, these facts 
would be still more apparent. The American sheep, 
weighed and measured for that table, were not, as 
already remarked, extraordinary ones in any particular 
pertaining to the carcass—were such as can be found 
in abundance in any prime flock. When their length 
of leg, neck and body, and breadth of hip are com- 
pared with each other, and with their weight, their 
compactness and massiveness of form become a neces- 
sary corollary; and here the disparity between them 
