112 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 
them with mixed Leonese, and subsequently with In- 
fantado rams, thus uniting the three most distinguish- 
ed families of American Merinos. His rains were 
scattered widely through New York a few years since, 
and they and their descendants have given much 
satisfaction to purchasers who wished to breed a high 
quality of wool. They have obtained many pre- 
miums at our fairs. 
The Messrs. Cutting, of Shoreham, Vermont, have 
produced flocks of excellent character by a cross be- 
tween Infantado sheep and an early family of Meri- 
nos from Newport, Rhode’ Island. They have bred 
steadily towards the former. 
Henry Lane, Esq., of Cornwall, Vermont, has bred 
superior sheep of the Paular and Infantado cross, and 
also pure Infantado sheep improved by Mr. Ham- 
mond. The same remark applies to Loyal C. Reme- 
lee, of Shoreham. 
On the other hand, it has been signally demon- 
strated that crossing is much less necessary than has 
been usually supposed, either to avoid in-and-in 
needing, or to obtain characteristics not usual to the 
variety. The pure Infantado (Atwood) sheep have, in 
the space of eighteen years, been completely changed 
in some of their most essential qualities. They have 
been converted into animals as large, low, broad, 
round, short-necked and symmetrical as any other 
family of Merinos in our country or the world. In 
short, some of them seem to me to have reached the 
perfection of form in a fine-wooled sheep. This 
change, quite as great as that which Mr. Bakewell 
produced in the Leicester sheep, is principally due to 
the skill and perseverance of Edwin Hammond, of 
