I 
326 
short time that people would believe, fine w'ool could be grown in a warm 
climate, even in our country. But experience has clearly shown that 
the Merino will yield its treasures in any climate with proper care. Its 
introduction into this country some forty or fifty years ago was a blessing 
which we have not yet learned to properly appreciate, and we owe it in 
a great degree to Mr. Jarvis, Col. Humphries, and Chancellor Livingston. 
These gentlemen imbued with a spirit of patriotism in those days by no 
means rare, with much trouble and expense, set the example, 'which was 
afterwards followed to a considerable extent, and the Spanish Merino 
became an established breed in the country, and should henceforth be 
known as the Merino , or if there must be any distinction let it be called 
the American Merino. I, however, approve of no prefix, but merely the 
Merino. 
The Merino is described as “long in the limbs, but the bone is small, 
the breast and back narrow, and the sides rather flat. The fore shoulders 
and bosoms are heavy, and the skin under the throat loose and flabby or 
indeed pendulous, the forehead and cheeks are covered with coarse, long 
hair, but the lower part of the face is smooth and velvety, the head 
is large, the forehead rather low.” This is the general appearance of the 
sheep, but when in the hands of skilful and judicious breeders they are 
made to assume a form compact and graceful; and the same author 
(Martin) says that among their defects is the fact “that they consume 
a large quantity of food without assuming a proportionate degree of con¬ 
dition.” If he had been better observant of the natural history of the 
sheep, he would have found that what the mutton growers considered a 
defect, the fine-wool grower considered the reverse; for to that very rea¬ 
son is traced the fineness and beauty of the wool. 
The importations of Merinos embraced individuals from the best of the 
various noted flocks in Spain, and having been bred together indiscrim¬ 
inately in this country, there is no full or pure blood of any of them, and 
whoever asserts that he has pure Haulers, or Negrettes, or Montarces, 
or Escurials, does so only to deceive. From any high bred flock indivi¬ 
duals having the characterestics of each of the above may be found, and 
by careful selection the flock may be bred towards the heavy dark-wooled 
and wrinkly Negrette, or to the lighter and clean throated Escurial. It is 
probable that the amalgamation of the breed of the different flocks has > 
