160 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 
it, for the early maturity of animals so necessary in 
England, provided ours will pay well for the addition- 
al expense of longer keeping. 
I have, as already stated, kept Merino sheep more 
than thirty years. During all the vicissitudes of that 
period the fleeces of the flock (without counting those 
of wethers which I have never kept in any consider- 
able number) have averaged over two dollars a head 
per annum. On the best lands of the State it now 
costs about two dollars a head annually to keep Merino 
sheep. Any one, then, is sure of hislambs and manure 
as clear gain. Wethers of the same flock would pro- 
duce fleeces worth about three dollars, and the clear 
gain on them annually would be a dollar a piece and 
the manure. 
The object of keeping sheep is to convert the vege- 
table productions of the farm into the most money and 
the most manure. Under the circumstances I have 
stated, and in regions where wool-growing is the pri- 
mary object, this is as well done by animals of longer 
as of shorter lives. The truth is, nobody could afford 
in this country to kill his Merinos at two years old, if 
they were perfectly matured and fit for the butcher at 
that age. 
Nor do I believe the Merino could readily be made 
to assume that form which, like the most perfect New 
Leicester or South Down, puts every ounce of meat on 
the part where it is nominally most valuable. At all 
events, I should decidedly object to tampering serious- 
ly with its present dest form. How many American 
purchasers, in looking for a sweet, juicy piece of mut- 
ton, are very careful to examine the angle of the rump 
or study the exact taper of the thigh, provided there 
