the following admeasurements. I add some corresponding ones of

The weights and measures given of the Spanish sheep are Austrian, a little exceeding English weights and measures. From a careful comparison of all the figures, I think Petri must have taken the circumference of the belly without compressing the wool, for if there was no greater difference in this particular, it is difficult to see from the above table-notwithstanding the marked superiority in breadth of hip of the American sheep-why they should have weighed so much the most. The American ram represented in the table was a small one, not usually weighing over 100 pounds with his fleece off. A full-sized one of the family (Infantado) would have weighed from 10 to 25 pounds more. The ewes were rather above the average of my grown sheep of the same family, and were in good ordinary condition. My measurements were made in 1861, and therefore do not exactly represent merinos of 1846; but I think the change in size and form was not very considerable between those dates; and I am not aware that any corresponding data of the American merinos of 1846 are preserved.

Some persons perhaps will get a clearer idea of the difference between the form of Spanish and American merinos from descriptive terms than from the above figures. The American sheep was far the lowest, roundest, and most compact animal, broader on the hip, fuller and broader in the bosom and breech, and shorter, proportionably, in the neck and legs. The Spanish migratory sheep travelled 800 miles a year, and, all things

considered, with great rapidity; and his deep, narrow chest, longer legs, and lean form-making some approach to that of the deer-adapted him to that necessity. The American farmer had no occasion for such properties, and he bred a sheep better calculated to take on flesh and fat, and possessing more of the essential points which are found most profitable in animals not required to travel far for their feed.

The American merino has not much increased in size during the last 20 years, and probably scarce any since 1861. Our breeders, indeed, have sought no such increase, considering it unprofitable in respect to wool production, inasmuch as smaller animals have more surface in proportion to weight than larger ones, and believing that a development of size greatly beyond the long established limits of the breed is unfavorable to vigor, hardinesss, and easy keeping. I think the introduction of French merinos (1840-1850) exerted much influence on public opinion and taste in this particular. These great overgrown sheep, which at first attracted so much admiration, proved so completely weak and worthless that our breeders got to eschew everything resembling them, and the popular impression was that their want of constitution was due to their extraordinary size for the breed, or rather to the same causes which had produced that size.1

The Rich or Paular family of American merinos, when not much mixed with the Humphreys or Infantado family, are smaller than the latterhaving been bred purposely in that direction by their earlier proprietors, to adapt them to the short keep of the Vermont hills. In their natural and unpampered state, they are nearly as hardy under privation and exposure as the British mountain breeds. The unpampered American Infantado is also a hardy sheep, but requires more food than the former. The two families bear the same relation to each other as do Devon and short-horn cattle. One is the most profitable in sterile and exposed situations, the other on rich lands and generous keep. Latterly, the Paular family have been, to a large extent, crossed with and bred towards the Infantados, but I think it highly expedient that they be preserved as a distinct variety, to meet the wants of many portions of our country. While the carcass of the merino has been so materially improved in the United States, and while its improved form has doubtless diminished its capacity for long and rapid travelling, I am not aware that it (I speak of unpampered sheep) has lost in any characteristic of value for its present situation. From my own recollections of the breed when it was but little changed from the original Spanish model, and from all the

'I do not intend to apply these remarks indiscriminately to the merinos of France. The stock imported by Mr. D. C. Collins, in 1840, from the royal flock at Rambouillet, were not thus overgrown. Their size, however, materially exceeding that of the American merino, was an entire novelty and a most captivating one to the popular eye. Consequently most of the later importers selected not only from the largest French stocks, but the largest sheep of the flocks from which they purchased-often paying comparatively little attention to other characteristics. These gaunt, unthrifty monsters, required an excess of keep and care, and then they generally perished within a year or two of the period of their introduc

tion here.

older recollections of experienced and reliable men with whom I conversed many years ago on the subject-men in various instances whose recollections of these sheep extended back to the time of their importations in 1809-1811, I am satisfied that their vigor of constitution has been on the whole increased; that they are more prolific, and furnish their offspring more milk; and it is certain, as already said, that they fatten more rapidly and better, and furnish better mutton. They accumulate, it is true, far less fat than the English mutton breeds; but good merino wethers are favorites in our markets. Their meat is darker colored and shorter grained than that of English sheep. It flavor is good. Multitudes of Americans prefer it to English mutton, and especially to Long-wool mutton; and the lambs of Southdown rams and grade merino ewes sell in our early markets for equal prices, pound for pound, with full blood Southdowns; perhaps the only other variety which habitually commands an extra price. And it has been found that pampering from birth, as mutton sheep are pampered, gives the merino a very liberal share of that early maturity which has been denied to it by those who have described the original variety. I am not contending, by any means, that the improved American merino rivals the British breeds as a profitable mutton sheep; but I would show that it no longer takes the low rank in that particular which has been traditionally assigned to it, and that its mutton has become an important consideration in estimating its general value, or its comparative adaptation to special localities.

But it is in weight of fleece that the American merino has made the most remarkable advance beyond its progenitors. We have seen that in 1844-25 small very choice lots yielded an average of over 5 lbs. a head of washed wool. Now flocks of several hundred, including tegs, without any wethers and not more than one per cent. of rams, on fair ordinary keep, yield an equal amount. Flocks of picked sheep yield 6 lbs. a head, and small, high-kept lots a pound or two more, all of washed wool.

It has become difficult indeed, for reasons which will presently appear, to learn accurately the amount of well-washed wool in a large proportion of the heaviest-fleeced small flocks. These are usually in the hands of "breeders"-ram-sellers, as they are termed in England-who raise sheep especially to sell them for breeding purposes, and who expect to obtain extraordinary prices. This business has been highly remunerative for a number of years; and during the recent war of the rebellion, the demand for choice merinos swelled into a mania. According to the popular idea “king cotton" was dead, and there was to be no resurrection for him. Woollen fabrics were permanently to supersede cotton fabrics in clothing, and in everything else where it could be employed as a substitute. There was therefore to be an enormous and perpetual demand for wool at high prices. Stimulated by such golden prospects, sheep holders increased their flocks, and made the most energetic efforts to improve them by the purchase of valuable rams; and thousands of

persons, wholly inexperienced in the business, abandoned other pursuits to embark for the ovine El Dorado. I think, speaking within bounds, I received two or three thousand letters, between 1861 and 1867, from lawyers, doctors, small merchants, clerks, mechanics, men out of business, clergymen, and farmers not previously engaged in sheep husbandry, who propounded inquiries on the subject of breeds, the most profitable localities for wool growing, and other matters connected with the establishment of flocks.

The prices of sheep rose above the high-water marks of 1809-15 and 1824-28. Without speaking of "refused offers," which sometimes are not very real, I know that an American merino ram actually sold for $5,000; quite a number of others at $3,000 to $4,000 each; and multitudes at $500 to $1,000 each. Several ewes were sold at $3,000 each; more at $2,000 each; and many at $500 to $1,000 each. There was the most eager competition to secure celebrated and costly animals; for every man expected to become a ram seller forthwith, and he found no difficulty in convincing himself how very soon he could thus obtain back his original expenditure, and then, by an easier process than was dreamed of by the alchemists, transmute his sheep into gold. In the permanent improvements of flocks, these costly animals, it is true, often richly paid for themselves; but many of the recent adventurers in the business were not satisfied with this-were not satisfied because they could not at once sell for as high prices as they had given; and when at the close of the war a temporary depression necessarily ensued in the woollen and consequently in the wool markets, (owing to causes which do not demand explanation here,) they were as anxious to abandon as they had been to embark in sheep husbandry.

This remarkable era in merino breeding, commencing in sound measures of improvement, but culminating during the war in the excitement which I have described, developed several fashions in breeding and management which were altogether new in the business. Quality of wool was little talked about. Weight of fleece was the primary con

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Take an example. My American merino ram, Twenty-one per cent," (measurements, &c., of which are subjoined to Petri's table, heretofore given,) was previously owned by Major Davis Cossit, of Onondaga, New York, and used by him in 1859 and the two succeeding years. His ewes were Saxons, with sufficient American merino blood to yield, on ordinary keep, about 4 ibs. of washed wool a head. In 1862 the fleeces of the progeny of this cross were first weighed separately. Eighty-three two-year old ewes yielded 552 lbs., and 80 yearling ewes 504 lbs. of washed wool-within a fraction of 64 lbs. a head. Each lot was the entire one (of ewes) of the year. In 1863, 65 two-year old and 92 yearling ewes yielded 1,119 lbs. of washed wool, or an average of 7 lbs. 2 oz. a head. The yearlings were not over 14 months old when shorn, and none of the sheep had been pampered. The original stock of ewes would never have fetched over, say, $8 a head immediately after shearing. For their progeny (ewes) the owner was offered $30 a head. The grade rams were mostly sold in lots, for $15 to $25 a head. I used this ram three years on my full-blood ewes; and I think he permanently increased the wool product of the flock half a pound per bead-quite as extraordinary a gain as the preceding one, when the blood and previous product of my flock are considered. This remarkable ram was bred by Mr. Hammond, of Vermont.

sideration; and it became the custom of many "breeders" to weigh the fleeces in the yolk, because, I suppose, it gave them an advantage over others. A rigid system of housing their sheep from contact with rain or snow the year round would preserve all the yolk in the fleece, and this would add to its weight several pounds. The holders of larger flocks could not do this without great inconvenience and expense. The former, therefore, were enabled to go into the newspapers with far higher statements of weights of fleeces. Inasmuch as this system of housing and preserving all the yolk in the wool gave the fleece externally a very dark color, that color soon became a prime necessity of fashion. And as the more the yolk, the more the weight and the darker the color, yolk itself was as carefully bred for as wool. I have seen it literally dropping from the fleece under a hot sun. As a high-fed sheep produces considerably more wool and yolk than an ordinarily kept one, a system of pampering was also extensively resorted to. Many of the summer and winter housed flocks were fed grain to the utmost verge of immediate safety, and far beyond the bounds of ultimate safety; for such continued forcing is destructive to the constitution and longevity of merino sheep, as all will bear witness who have tried or observed its effects.

Under the above system of breeding and treatment, and sometimes without any special pampering, merino rams' fleeces in the yolk are frequently reported as weighing upwards of 25 pounds, and some have risen to 30 pounds. Ewes' fleeces range from 10 pounds to 15 pounds, and sometimes individuals or small lots have gone higher. Unfortunately these weights afford scarcely an approximate criterion of the actual weight of the wool, the proportion of yolk to wool possessing no uniformity. The breeders' customs above described constitute the reason which I promised to give, in a preceding part of this paper, why the present amount of well washed wool in most of the heaviest fleeced flocks cannot be accurately determined.

The practice of housing sheep from rain and snow for the preceding objects is not a fraud, if distinctly avowed to all buyers. But I think it productive of no benefit, and of considerable injury. It is a useless waste of a good deal of time, and occasionally produces loss in other respects. The new-mown hay or grain must be left to get wet on the ground, to the serious deterioration of its quality, rather than have the precious weightgiving and color-giving yolk washed out of the fleece! And there can, it appears to me, be no reasonable doubt that this habitual non-exposure to the ordinary changes of weather must, in the course of time, to a greater or lesser degree, beget an incapacity to endure such exposures with entire impunity. Besides, this housing, if ever so frankly proclaimed, tends to warp the judgment of all buyers, and especially inexperienced buyers. If it did not give a fictitious value to the animal-rendering it more salable than sheep of equal value not thus treated-what would be the use of it? It is perfectly notorious that it, with early shearing,1 does These "fitted" sheep are sheared from a month and a half to two months earlier than sheep in general.