t hM SHEEP. 
171 
THE DOMESTIC SHEEP: 
TIIEIR BREEDS, MANAGEMENT, ETC. 
BREEDS OF SHEEP IN THE UNITED STATES.— The principal breeds 
of sheep in the United States are the Native sheep , the Spanish and 
Saxon Merinos , the New Leicester, or Bakewell, the South-Down, the 
Cotswold, the Cheviot and the Lincoln. 
The Native Sheep are the variously mixed descendants of those origin- 
ally introduced by the first colonists. They yielded wool suited only to 
the coarsest fabrics. They were slow in arriving at maturity, compared 
with the improved English breeds; and the weight of fleece, and quality 
and quantity of mutton, were inferior to the improved English breeds. 
They have now, however, become nearly extinct, by crosses with foreign 
breeds of later introduction. 
American Merinos. — Of these there are three classes, or varieties. The 
first is a large, short-legged and hardy sheep, the wool ranging from medium 
to fine, and without hair when well fed — rarely exhibiting gum exter- 
nally — their wool thick, and comparatively long on the back and belly, and 
whiter than that of the French sheep called the Rambouillets, and their 
skin has the rich rose-color of the latter. The second general class of 
American Merinos are smaller than the preceding — less hardy — wool as 
a general thing finer — covered with a black pitchy gum on its extremi- 
ties — fleece about one-fourth lighter than in class first. The third class, 
which have been bred mostly South, are still smaller and less hardy — 
and carry still finer and lighter fleeces. The fleece is destitute of ex- 
ternal gum. The sheep and wool bear a close resemblance to the 
Saxon; and if not actually mixed with that blood, they have been 
formed into a similar variety, by a similar course of breeding. Class 
first arc a larger and stronger sheep than those originally imported from 
Spain, carry much heavier fleeces, and in well selected flocks, or indi- 
viduals, the fleece is of a decidedly better quality.* 
The Merino fleece is in Spain sorted into four parcels. The following 
cut, while it contains the portrait of a Merino ewe, points out the parts 
whence the different wools are generally procured. The division can- 
not always be accurate, and especially in sheep of an inferior quality, 
but it is more to be depended upon in the Merino sheep wherever found, 
for the fleece is more equally good, and the quantity of really bad wool 
is very small. 
Both Lasteyrie and Livingston agree in this division. The refina, or 
the pick-lock wool begins at the withers, and extends along the back to 
the setting on of the tail. It reaches only a little way down at the quar- 
ters, but, dipping down at the flanks, takes in all the superior part of 
the chest, and the middle of the side of the neck to the angle of the 
lower jaw. The fina, a valuable wool, but not so deeply serrated, or 
* Randall's “Sheep Husbandry. 1 
