THE MERINO BREED. 
PLATE XII. 
RAM and EWE, Bred by Thomas Benett, Esq. of Pyt House, Wiltshire, M. P. 
From early times Spain has been noted for the production of numerous flocks of Sheep, and of wool adapted to the fabrica¬ 
tion of the finer cloths and tissues. That country presents great diversity of surface and natural productions. Towards the south 
and east it is more African in its character than any other part of Europe. The interior consists of elevated plains, hounded and 
traversed by long ranges of mountains, the summits of which sometimes rise into the region of perpetual congelation. Descending 
from these chains of mountains are several noble rivers, which carry their waters to the Mediterranean and Atlantic through plains 
and valleys of surpassing richness and beauty. The climate varies greatly with the altitude, but the air is every where pure and 
dry. The vegetable productions are those of the warmer as well as of the colder parts of the northern temperate zone. The 
orange, the citron, the olive, and the vine, are common productions of the lower plains; the rocky mountains are covered with 
cisti, arborescent heaths, and many beautiful and fragrant herbs; and in the cultivated country are mingled the plants of the 
warmer with those of the temperate regions, the maize, the sugar-cane, the rice, and the sorghi, with wheat and other cerealia. 
Numerous varieties of Sheep occupy the plains and mountainous country. Some produce a long wool, deficient in the property of 
felting, but fitted for the manufacture of the looser fabrics, as carpets and flannels, as well as serges and the lighter tissues. These 
long-woolled Sheep are found in the lower and more cultivated countries. The short-woolled Sheep inhabit, for the most part, the 
sandy downs, and the mountains and elevated plains of the interior, where a finer herbage prevails. They are altogether distinct 
from the larger Sheep of the richer plains, although both have been largely mingled in blood together, and have produced a mixed 
progeny, which is very numerous. 
This fine country, so rich and beautiful, has rarely been permitted to avail itself of its unrivalled resources. With a few happy 
intervals, the history of Spain is one of intestine troubles, of foreign wars, of civil intolerance, and religious bigotry. Its former inha¬ 
bitants, apparently of the same great family of mankind which peopled Gaul and other countries of Western Europe, were early 
visited for the purposes of commerce by Phoenician voyagers, and subsequently by the Samians and other Greeks, who were per¬ 
mitted to establish towns on the coasts of the Mediterranean. These strangers at first contented themselves with their little mari¬ 
time colonies, and with the means of intercourse which these afforded with the native inhabitants; but at length the Phoenicians, 
with that desire of colonization which distinguished them, founded the city of Gades, now Cadiz, beyond the Gaditanian Strait. 
The natives, alarmed at this encroachment, prepared to attack the intruders ; when the latter, in an evil hour, called to their aid 
the Carthaginians, then the most powerful maritime people of the Mediterranean. Disregarding its allies, this ambitious state 
began on its own account a system of cruel conquest, penetrating through the very heart of the country to the Ebro, establishing 
fortresses and founding cities, amongst which was the noble city of New Carthage, which to this hour retains the name Cartagena. 
In the year 216, B. c., the fatal siege of the city of Saguntum, situated in the modern kingdom of Valencia, gave rise to the memo¬ 
rable wars between Carthage and Rome, which ended in the destruction of the Carthaginian Commonwealth, and the supremacy 
of its relentless rival. In the mean while the Romans pursued the conquest of the devoted country to which they had been called 
as protectors. But nearly 200 years elapsed before they were able to bring it under subjection. At length all Spain became a 
peaceful province of Rome, receiving in exchange for her independence a longer exemption from the troubles of war, and a greater 
degree of public prosperity, than she has ever again been permitted to enjoy. Under the wise administration of Roman laws, Spain 
soon became the richest, most industrious, and most powerful of all the dependent nations of the empire. It was during the period 
of Roman dominion, continued for more than 450 years, that this country became distinguished for her commerce, her agriculture, 
and her other arts. Some of her cities were reckoned amongst the most opulent of the ancient world; and aqueducts, bridges, 
and ways of communication, now in ruins, attest a degree of civilization and refinement to which, except under the partial dominion 
of the Caliphs, she never again reached. 
The Roman writers, in their casual notices of the productions of this important province, speak of its wool as being 
greatly esteemed for its fineness. It is described as being black. Pliny the younger informs us that the finest wool, of a black 
colour, was brought from Truditania; and Strabo, who wrote in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, says, that wool suited for the 
finer garments of the Romans was brought from the same country. Pliny, while he mentions the fine wool of Truditania, states, 
