American Agriculture. 
437 
could not do so. And a member of congress, a lawyer from the 
state of Ne A' York, and in many respects a very intelligent and 
able man, actually asked me in all sincerity and earnestness 
whether this w\as not really the fact. I need not say that there is 
not a particle of truth in the idea. We can raise just as good 
combing wool in the United States as can be raised in Canada. 
And the only reason why Canada combing wool sells from 15 to 20 
per cent, higher than our combing wool is, that the Canadian far¬ 
mers understand the management of long wooled English sheep 
better than w^e do. They raise more roots and feed better. It is 
not any difference in soil or climate. We can raise just as good 
combing wool as can be raised in Canada, and we are learning how 
to do it. 
Some time since I read an article in the London Agricultural 
O 
Gazette, headed The most profitable flock in Essex, England.” 
Merino sheep were imported into England nearly a century ago when 
fine wool commanded high prices. But it was found that owing to 
the demand for mutton, the coarser-wooled sheep were much more 
profitable. Still the sheep v/ere kept for many years. Finally, 
however, the attempt to raise fine wool was abandoned, and these 
Merino sheep were crossed with the English mutton sheep. And 
it was a flock of these cross-bred English and Merino sheep that 
was pronounced the most profitable flock in the county of Essex. 
My own experience in this country is in the same direction. By 
selecting a flock of common Merino ewes, which average at full ma¬ 
turity 80 pounds each, and which cost me $2.40 per head, and by 
putting them to a high bred, pure; Cotswold ram, I got a lot of 
strong, healthy lambs which, with good feed, grew rapidly and 
afforded excellent mutton, and the wool, even the first cross, sold 
for combing. A second cross, that is, by taking the ewe lambs 
from the first cross and putting them, when about eighteen months 
old, to a pure-bred Cotswold ram, produced lambs which approxi¬ 
mated closely to the Cotswold in size and in length of wool, while 
the lambs are hardier and stronger, and the wool finer, and the mut¬ 
ton of better quality than the pure bred Cotswold. 1 killed one of 
these three-fourths Cotswolds-Merino sheep, which, at 15 months 
old, dressed 25 pounds per quarter. 
We have millions of these hardy common Merino ewes, which can 
be bought at from to $2 to $4 per head, and two or three crosses of 
