FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 93 
its own weight daily of good hay in winter, and an 
equivalent of green food in snmmer. The Saxon 
sheep of 1840, then, consumed about two and a half 
pounds of hay daily, and the American about three 
pounds—a difference of 75 pounds in favor of the 
former during the 150 days of a New York winter. 
Hay then cost about $5 a ton at the barn, and pastur- 
age a cent a week for a sheep of either variety through 
the remaining 225 days of the year, making the cost 
of-keeping an American Merino less than 20 cents 
most a year. 
The Saxon required much more care and attention, 
and better winter shelter. In ordinary hands it 
reared 20 per centum less of good lambs.* Finally, 
the American Merino fatted as easily as the Saxon, 
made as good mutton, and produced more of it. 
In the interior and wool growing regions proper of 
New York, hay for the last few years has usually 
averaged about $6 a ton in value at the barn, and 
pasture costs through the season about two cents a 
head per week for sheep. Were the prices of both 
doubled, it is obvious that the American Merino 
would continue vastly the most profitable sheep, par- 
ticularly if the increase in its fleece since 1840 is 
taken into account. 
The French Merino spread with great rapidity 
throughout the Northern States, and is disappearing 
as rapidly. Our farmers have obtained the impres- 
sion that it produces less wool in proportion to size 
and consumption, than the American Merino, wool 
*T say “good lambs,” because many of the small and feeble lambs 
of the Saxon sheep perished during their first winter when eight or 
nine months old. 
