FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 157% 
is not a drove that sweeps from the plains of the north- 
west that does not exhibit a sprinkling of this blood; 
and if they are merely grass-fed, the twenty fattest, 
and least travel-worn sheep in the drove will usually 
be found those which, by a little darker tinge of their 
wool, and its greater thickness and “squareness on 
the ends,” betray more Merino blood. 
Those people who pay such prices in our cities for 
South Down lambs in February and March, are not 
perhaps aware they are paying for grade Merinos. 
Ewes having no Merino blood do not allow them- 
selves to be impregnated (that is, generally and with 
regularity) early enough in autumn to produce these 
lambs. The grade Merino ewes are bred to the South 
Down ram, which gives the offspring additional size, 
and the dark-colored legs, which satisfy fashionable 
purchasers.* 
* Samuel Thorne, Hsq., of Dutchess Co., one of the most intelligent 
and successful breeders in our State, writes me on this subject: 
‘The sheep purchased for breeding market lambs are usually the 
ordinary Ohio Merinos, sometimes bought from the droves as they 
arrive, and sometimes from the farmers who have kept them over one 
season. I always prefer the latter, the difference in price alone caus- 
ing meto purchase the former. When selecting them, the point of the 
greatest importance is to get good milkers, that governing the choice 
more than any thing else, as the object is to get prime early lambs. 
When there has been a chance to select ewes with a cross of either 
of the mutton breeds, I have always availed myself of it, though the 
difference in price between them and the ordinary ones is generally 
too great too make it as profitable. All things being equal, large 
sheep are of course preferable to small ones. Ewes with a strong 
tincture of Merino blood take the ram with more certainty early in 
the season than those deeply crossed with the mutton breeds. It is, 
however, no advantage to have the lambs come too early, as they do 
not bring so large a price before as they do in the regular season. My 
own ewes are turned with a South Down ram the Ist of September, 
