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Merinos will yield larger profits than the coarser grades. The Merinos 
have, by breeding and cultivation, been divided into varieties, some larger 
and carrying more wool than others ; some with finer wool and some with 
coarser. Size within moderate limits is not a matter of any consequence, 
nor is the amount of wool per head, provided the smaller sheep bears as 
much in proportion to its consumption of food as the larger, and as the 
greater animal of the same species consumes a proportionable greater 
amount of food than the lesser. The question, therefore, for the farmer 
to ask, is not how much wool will a given number of sheep produce, but 
how much wool will the yield of a given number of acres produce. 
“ Their size must be adapted to their feed. Shape is of much more 
consequence than size. It is this that indicates the constitution of the 
animal. A well formed sheep possess a round straight back, short 
straight legs, a round carcass, cylindrical rather than funnel shaped ; that 
is, carrying its depth and breadth into the fore quarter instead of tapering 
off in the shape of a funnel. The quality as well as the quantity of the 
wool is of the greatest importance. Merino w r ool ranges from the finest 
Saxon to medium. The Saxon sheep have ordinarily tender constitutions, 
because in their breeding, everything else was for a long time sacrificed 
to the quality of the wool. Merinos can now be found which equal or¬ 
dinary grades of Saxons in fineness, and they are much thicker wooled 
and hardier animals. 
“ Economy demands that the wool be thick on the sheep, not only to 
make a good return for the food consumed, but as a protection against the 
w r eather. Pure bloods are much more desirable than grade sheep, but to 
attempt to stock our unoccupied farms exclusively with pure bloods, 
would be a matter requiring much time and expense ; and it is perfectly 
w r ell known to all practical breeders that sheep of a desirable quality can 
be produced in three or four years, by crossing the best grade ewes 
with pure blooded bucks of the proper stamp. It would be well indeed 
to have a few pure blooded ewes to supply bucks and to gradually form 
a pure blooded flock. In procuring pure bloods, great care should, of 
course, be exercised to obtain those not only of individual excellence, but 
of absolute and undoubted purity of blood. This method of making up 
a good flock will be found much more economical and nearly as quick as 
to purchase, for pure bloods, whole flocks brought here from Vermont or 
