84 FINE WoOUL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 
fleeces, &e., &e. It would be difficult to give the 
characteristics of these various importations of sheep, 
as there has been so great a difference in them, 
they having been of all kinds and qualities, from 
good to very infercor. Some of them have been of 
large size, were well proportioned, being short in the 
leg, broad in the chest, had strong hardy constitu- 
tions, were easily kept, and always in good condi- 
tion. With ordinary care and on ordinary feed, they 
sheared heavy fleeces, and their wool was even and of 
good quality, while others of them, and by far the 
greatest number, were the opposite of these in all the 
different qualities mentioned, some having been the 
discarded and refused sheep of good flocks, and others 
were grade sheep from flocks having no reputation as 
being of strictly pure blood; but these kinds of sheep 
were bought up by speculators at low prices, brought 
to this country and sold on the reputation and credit 
of the better class of French sheep that had been 
previously imported. They were long in the leg and 
long in the neck ; were slab-sided, thin-visaged, gaunt, 
thin through the shoulders, narrow in the chest ; 
their constitutions so puny and delicate that it was 
impossible to keep them in fair condition even with 
the best possible care and attention ; their fleeces were 
light, their wool uneven in quality, some being quite 
too fine for profit (because too ree while others 
would be exceedingly coarse and filled with jar. In 
France, as in this country, there are all descriptions 
and grades of sheep, and it does not follow, as is sup- 
posed by many, that all that have been imported 
from there are of the same kind and quality, even if 
culled by the same name. * * * * 
“In answer to your inquiry as to the weight of 
fleece of the French sheep and their live weight, I 
can only reply by giving the result of my own flock. 
My French rams have generally sheared from 18 to 
24 pounds of an even year’s growth, and unwashed ; 
