120 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 
now tall, narrow ones, &., &c.,—will never attain 
that degree of uniformity which is essential to a de- 
cently bred flock. 
There is another kind of crossing between varieties 
of the same breed for a different object than the one 
I have discussed, viz: to bring one of the varvetres so 
crossed to the standard of the other. In this no mid- 
dle line between the varieties is aimed at, but to give 
the offspring the characteristics of the best one by 
crossing steadily towards the best one. I regard 
this as strictly legitimate breeding. For example, if 
a flock master has one hundred ewes of Mr. Jarvis’s 
family, described under No. 1, and wishes to convert 
them into such sheep as those described under No. 2 
or No. 3, it is his true course then to bred them 
steadily to rams of the preferred flock, and so far as 
possible to those of the same individual character. If 
the Merino blood is absolutely pure on both sides, the 
assimilation will usually go on pretty rapidly and 
surely. Many former owners of good Saxons even, 
who had judgment to select proper American Merino 
rams, and who have held on in a steady line, now 
own flocks superior in actual value to very many 
pure American Merino flocks. 
I have alluded in a preceding note to the former 
admirable Saxon and Spanish flock of James M. 
Ellis, Esq, of Onondaga—called Saxon in the wool 
market, but built up on an early Spanish Merino 
foundation.* Fifty ewes were taken from this flock 
in 1852, the fleeces of which weighed from 34 to 34 
* Gen. Elhs (father of James M Ellis) purchased several sheep of 
Col Humphreys, and kept a ram and ewe for his own use. Ther 
blood mingles in that of the present flock. 
