FINE WOOL SHEEP ILUSBANDRY. SL 
and the original Spanish sheep is most striking. The 
longer neck and legs, and shorter bodies of the latter, 
remind us of the Saxons. 
The improvement of the fleece has kept pace with 
that of the form. In prime flocks, the quality is at 
least as good as that of the original Spanish sheep, 
while the quantity has more than doubled. 
The very best Merinos imported into the United 
States between 1800 and 1813, yielded from 34 to 4 
lbs. of brook-washed wool in the ewe, and from 6 to 
7 lbs. in the ram. Mr. Dupont’s Don Pedro, the 
heaviest fleeced imported Spanish Merino ram, I 
think, on record, produced 8 Ibs. 8 oz., of brook- 
washed wool. We have seen that ewes in small 
flocks, descended from the above, yielded an average 
of 43 Ibs. of wool, washed in the same way, as early 
as 1835. In 184445, the product had risen to 5 lbs. 
in some small flocks ; that of rams to 9 lbs., and in in- 
dividual instances much higher.* At the present day 
it is easier to find small flocks yielding an average of 
6 lbs. of washed wool, than it was in 1845 to find those 
yielding 5 lbs., or in 1835 those yielding 44 Ibs. 
I speak of “small” flocks, because in large ones 
equal averages are never obtained. It would be diffi- 
cult, and probably impracticable at this time, to find 
a flock of 400 or 500 ewes, kept in the ordinary way, 
* See preceding statement of Mr. Atwood, that in 1845 his heaviest 
ewe’'s fleece was 6 Ibs. 6 oz., and his heaviest ram’s fleece 12 lbs. 4 
oz My premium ram’s first fleece in 1844, was 10 lbs. of well washed 
wool. In 1847, a ewe of mine produced 7 Ibs. 10 oz. of well washed 
wool, (See portrait of her in Sheep Husbandry in the South, p. 154.) 
In 1849, a ram of mine yielded 13 lbs. and two or three ounces of 
well washed wool, I think that Mr. Atwood then probably had rams 
which exceeded that amount. 
