210 
MEMOIR OP DAUBENTON. 
He begun bis experiments on this subject in 1766, 
and continued them till his death. Favoured from the 
first by Trudaine, he received encouragement from all 
the ministers who succeeded that enlightened and pa- 
triotic individual, and he responded to it in a manner 
worthy of him self. 
To show, in the clearest manner, the advantage of 
always keeping sheep in parks ; to demonstrate the per- 
nicious consequences of the practice of closing up sheep 
in houses during the winter ; to try various means of 
improving the race ; to find means of determining, with 
precision, the degree of fineness in the wool ; to become 
acquainted with the true mechanism of rumination, and 
to deduce from thence useful conclusions respecting the 
constitution of wool-bearing animals, and the modes of 
feeding and managing them ; to spread the produce of 
his stock throughout the provinces ; to distribute his 
rams among all the proprietors of flocks; to weave 
cloths with these wools, in order to show their superio- 
rity ; to rear intelligent shepherds to propagate the 
practice of his method ; to draw up instructions level 
to the capacity of all classes of agriculturists. Such 
is a rapid summary of Daubenton’s labours on this im- 
portant subject. 
Almost at every public sitting of the Academy he 
gave an account of his researches, and often obtained 
more applause from the gratitude of his assistants, than 
his associates received for the most difficult discoveries, 
but whose utility was less obvious. 
