PAUL A R MERINOS.—NO. II. 
91 
We have had the following communication and an¬ 
other from the same source, (which we shall insert in 
our April No.,) some time on hand; but owing to a 
great press of other interesting matter, and wishing to 
satisfy ourselves on a few particular points before 
publication, have delayed printing them till now. We 
deem these articles of great interest to the wool-grow¬ 
ing public, and bespeak for them a careful perusal. 
PAULAR MERINOS.—No. II. 
Having been absent from the city for several months 
past, I have hardly seen the late numbers of the Agri¬ 
culturist, nor found leisure to examine their contents. 
An hour spent with you and your correspondents is to 
me always interesting, and is a pleasure, to which I 
have just now treated myself; the first enjoyment of 
the kind for a long time past. In casting a glance 
through your pages for the last few months, I notice 
in the October No., at page 212, an article from the 
pen of Mr. Solomon Jewett, evidently intended as a 
reply to my remarks, that appeared in your paper of 
March last, upon his sheep, miscalled Paulars. I also 
now perceive, that among your “ notices to correspon¬ 
dents,” in the September No., you committed me to a 
sort of necessity of replying to Mr. Jewett, and of reply¬ 
ing early. This had either wholly escaped my atten¬ 
tion at the time, or I had since forgotten it. I hope 
that neither you nor your readers, nor Mr. Jewett es¬ 
pecially, have been impatient for my rejoinder. 
In exposing and denouncing, as I did in your May 
No., the counterfeit Paulars, I beg you to believe, that 
in thus fulfilling the obligation of a public duty, noth¬ 
ing was further from my wish or intention, than to get 
engaged in a newspaper controversy. And now, in read¬ 
ing Mr. Jewett’s article, I really see but very little, if 
anything, in it, which requires a reply from me. In¬ 
deed I do not know that I should make any, were it 
not that a worthy and intelligent friend at my elbow, 
informs me that some persons, (mostly however among 
Mr. Jewett’s friends,) have inferred, or pretended to in¬ 
fer, that my delay in responding to him, was because 
bis positions were so impregnable, that nothing could 
be said in refutation of them. Such a supposition, if 
in earnest, is truly laughable ! Rather than that such 
an unwarranted and ludicrous inference should be 
drawn from my silence, Mr. Jewett shall, without 
further delay, receive the notice which he covets ; for 
though what he has written really requires no reply, 
yet as the general subject is one of importance, and of 
great public interest at the present moment, and on 
which a good deal more can be usefully and profitably 
said, I trust that in renewing and extending my re- 
mai'ks, the public good may thereby be promoted. 
But it is due to my own inexperience as a writer for 
the public eye, that in dealing with so practised an ad¬ 
versary as Mr. Jewett, I should not consent to his 
getting up any false issues in the case, nor allow him 
cunningly to draw me off from the plain and strong 
ground I first occupied, and which I expect fully to 
maintain. 
Let me “ define my position” a little, and clear 
away some of the rubbish and fog which Mr. J. has 
attempted to draw around me. My former communi¬ 
cation will speak for itself, as to what I really did say. 
But as to what I did not say—in the first place, I did 
not say nor intimate, (as Mr. Jewett would insinuate,) 
that the real Paular sheep of Spain, are, as regards 
“ fineness of fleece, equal or superior to the Saxons .” 
I have thrown out no such idea. I have instituted no 
such comparison. I made no sort of allusion to the 
comparative degree of fineness of fleece between Paular 
Merino and Saxon wool. It is well known to all, that 
none of the Spanish wool equals in fineness that of 
S&xony. But I did not even say that the Paular wool 
was the finest of all the Spanish Merino flocks. I only 
said that it was “ among the finest and best,” which 
assertion was not made without good authority, though 
it is well known that the Escurial, and perhaps some 
other of the travelling Merino flocks of Spain, yield 
finer wool than the Paular flock. No one questions or 
doubts this. But that does not make the Paular wool 
very coarse and had , like that of Mr. Jewett’s pictured 
and much vaunted Vermont ram. 
I spoke particularly of that ram , of which, and of 
his great and heavy fleece, so much had been said by 
Mr. Jewett, and boastingly set forth by him in various 
publications, (obtruding the beast on the public, or at 
least inviting attention to him,) that the ram, or his 
character and peculiarities, had thus become in some 
sense public property. The public had an interest, a 
great interest, in knowing the truth in regard to him, 
if it could be ascertained. 
In my former article, which has so disturbed Mr. 
Jewett, I expressed a confident opinion, which subse¬ 
quent examination and inquiry have most fully con¬ 
firmed, that the ram in question was (i not a genuine 
Paular, nor a pure-bred Merino of any sort, but a mongrel 
sheep of some kind or other, probably having a cross 
of some sort of large English mutton-sheep, just by 
way of improvement.” 
I did not draw any comparison between Saxon wool , 
and the harsh, wiry, and coarse covering of the Jewett 
ram. As soon compare “ Hyperion to a satyr!” or 
fine linen muslin to the coarsest Kentucky bagging. 
I should really much sooner have thought of dog’s hair 
as a standard of comparison for the ram’s fleece; for 
to that it bears a closer and stronger affinity. In my 
candor, I only compared it with English South-Down 
wool—and assuredly it is not in any respect better . 
The comparison with South-Down was not an unfair 
one; unless, indeed, the breeders of those excellent 
mutton-sheep, which furnished me the comparison, 
should feel that they have reason to complain of the 
liberty I have taken, which in truth I understand some 
of them have done, though I think without any just 
ground, the South-Down fleece not claiming a place 
among the fine , soft , and valuable wools, the merit of 
that breed lying rather in the good form of its carcase , 
and its excellent, fine-flavored mutton, to the quality of 
which I take pleasure in conceding the well-deserved 
palm of superiority. 
Though in asserting the fact, that the covering of 
the Jewett ram was very coarse, and in my judgement 
“ not entitled to be classed among the fine wools,” I 
did not think of anything so ridiculous as the institu¬ 
ting of a comparison between the ram’s wool and that 
of Saxon sheep, or those having a cross of Saxon blood, 
yet Mr. Jewett may himself do so, if he likes ; and it 
is believed that he can do it too, without going beyond 
his own flock, for the Saxon mixture. Hence, the ex¬ 
planation of his being able to show fine samples of 
wool, and to exhibit sheep bearing fine wool. But did 
you not say, (I hear your readers inquire,) did not Ex¬ 
aminer say, the ram’s wool was very coarse and bad ? 
I answer yes, and I have now solved the problem for 
you; all difficulty and inconsistency on my part, van¬ 
ishes when we come to use our ,common sense and our 
eyes, and see the fact that Mr. J.’s fine wool and his 
coarse does not always grow on the same sort of sheep, 
or on those having the same kind of blood. And then, 
too, if we were near enough to see things as they really 
j are, it would be found that Mr. J.’s fine sheep do not 
