FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 155 
in cold weather, as such animals make more meat 
than can be disposed of unsalted in such situations. 
Consequently, vast droves of grade sheep from the 
Northwestern States traverse New York from mid- 
summer to the approach of winter, directly for our 
Eastern cities, or to be sold in their vicinity for feed- 
ing. 
Why not meet a large part of this demand, now 
supplied from abroad, with our full-blood Merino 
sheep? Even the epicurism of England has decided 
that this breed produces prime mutton. Sir Joseph 
Banks, in a report made in 1802, says: “ Experience 
has demonstrated already, both at Windsor and Wey- 
bridge (the royal residences), that Spanish mutton is 
of the best quality for a gentleman’s table.” Mr. 
Wilson, the present Professor of Agriculture in the 
University of Edinburgh, in a recent excellent paper 
on “The various breeds of Sheep in Great Britain,” 
furnished by him to the Royal Agricultural Society’s 
Journal,* says: “ They (the Merinos) are hardy, and 
not more subject to disease than our other breeds ; 
they thrive very well on moderate keep, and may be 
fed up to 110 to 120 pounds weight at two years old; 
the mutton is considered to be of very good quality.” 
The report of Tessier and Hazard, made to the 
Institute in France, in the year eight of the Republic, 
shows that the same opinion prevailed even thus early 
in France. They say: “The experiments we had 
formerly made in feeding of Spanish sheep have not 
been fully detailed. It has been undeniably proved 
that all those animals were fattened, and their flesh 
* Vol. 16. It is republished in the Transactions of this Society, 
1857, p. 219. The extract I make will be found at p. 239. 
