Part 7

The consumption of food, then, being proportioned to the weight, it follows that, if one acre is capable of sustaining three Merinos, weighing one hundred pounds each, it will sustain two Leicesters, weighing one hundred and fifty each, and two and two-fifth South-Downs, weighing one hundred and twenty-five each. Merinos of this weight often shear five pounds per fleece, taking flocks through. The herbage of an acre, then, would give fifteen pounds of Merino wool, twelve of Leicester, and but nine and three-fifths of South-Down--estimating the latter as high as four pounds to the fleece. Even the finest and lightest-fleeced sheep known as Merinos average about four pounds to the fleece; so that the feed of an acre would produce as much of the highest quality of wool sold under the name of Merino as it would of New Leicester, and more than it would of South-Down, while the former would be worth from fifty to one hundred per cent. more per pound than either of the latter.

Nor does this indicate all the actual difference, as in the foregoing estimate the live weight of the English breeds is placed low, and that of the Merinos high. The live weight of the five-pound fine-fleeced Merino does not exceed ninety pounds; it ranges, in fact, from eighty to ninety; so that three hundred pounds of live weight--it being understood that all of these live weights refer to ewes in fair ordinary, or what is called store, condition--would give a still greater product of wool to the acre. It is perfectly safe, therefore, to say that the herbage of an acre will uniformly give nearly double the value of Merino that it will of any of the English long or middle wools.

What are the other relative expenses of these breeds? The full-blooded Leicester is in no respect a hardier sheep than the Merino, though some of its crosses are much hardier than the pure-bred sheep: indeed, it is less hardy, under the most favorable circumstances. It is more subject to colds; its constitution more readily gives way under disease; the lambs are more liable to perish from exposure to cold, when newly dropped. Under unfavorable circumstances--herded in large flocks, famished for feed, or subjected to long journeys--its capacity to endure, and its ability to rally from sad drawbacks, do not compare, with those of the Merino. The high-bred South-Down, though considerably less hardy than the unimproved parent stock, is still fairly entitled to the appellation of a hardy animal; it is, in fact, about on a pace with the Merino, though it will not bear as hard stocking, without a rapid diminution in size and quality. If the peculiar merits of the animal are to be considered in determining the expenses, as they surely should be, the superior fecundity of the South-Down is a point in its favor, as well for a wool-producing as a mutton sheep. The ewe not only frequently produces twin lambs--as do both the Merino and Leicester--but, unlike the latter, she possesses nursing properties to do justice to them. This advantage, however, is fully counterbalanced by the superior longevity of the Merino. All the English mutton breeds begin to rapidly deteriorate in amount of wool, capacity to fatten, and general vigor, at about five years old; and their early maturity is no offset to this, in an animal kept for wool-growing purposes. This early decay requires earlier and more rapid slaughter than is always economically convenient, or even possible.

It is well, on properly stocked farms, to slaughter or turn off the Merino wether at four or five years old, to make room for the breeding stock; but he will not particularly deteriorate, and he will richly pay the way with his fleece for several years longer. Breeding ewes are rarely turned off before eight, and are frequently kept until ten years old, at which period they exhibit no greater marks of age than do the Downs and Leicester at five or six. Instances are known of Merino ewes breeding uniformly until fifteen years old. The improved Cotswold is said to be hardier than the Leicester; but this variety, from their great size, and the consequent amount of food consumed by them, together with the other necessary incidents connected with the breeding of such large animals, is incapacitated from being generally introduced as a wool-growing sheep. All the coarse races have one advantage over the Merino: they are less subject to the visitation of the hoof-ail, and when untreated, this disease spreads with less violence and malignity among them. This has been explained by the fact that their hoofs do not grow long and turn under from the sides, as do those of the Merino, and thus retain dirt and filth in constant contact with the foot.

Taking into account all the circumstances connected with the peculiar management of each race, together with all the incidents, exigencies, and risks of the husbandry of each, it may be confidently asserted that the expenses, other than those of feed, are not smaller per head, or even in the number required to stock an acre, in either of the English breeds above referred to, than in the Merino. Indeed, it may well be doubted whether any of those English breeds, except the South-Down, is on an equality, even, with the Merino, in these respects. For wool-growing purposes, the Merino, then, possesses a marked and decided superiority over the best breeds and families of coarse-woolled sheep. As a mutton sheep, it is inferior to some of those breeds; although not so much as is popularly supposed. Many persons, who have never tasted Merino mutton, and who have, consequently, an unfavorable impression of it, would, if required to consume the fat and lean together, find it more palatable than the luscious and over-fat New Leicester. The mutton of the cross between the Merino and the Native would certainly be preferred to the Leicester, by anybody but an English laborer, accustomed to the latter, since it is short-grained, tender, and of good flavor. The same is true of the crosses with the English varieties, which will hereafter be treated of more particularly. Grade Merino wethers, half-bloods, for example, are favorites with the drover and butcher, being of good size, extraordinarily heavy for their apparent bulk, by reason of the shortness of their wool, compared with the coarse breeds, making good mutton, tallowing well, and their pelts, from the greater weight of wool on them, commanding an extra price. In speaking of the Merino in this connection, no reference is made to the Saxons, though they are, as is well known, pure-blooded descendants of the former.

Assuming it, then, as settled, that it is to the Merino race that the wool-grower must look for the most profitable sheep, a few considerations are subjoined as to the adaptability of the widely diverse sub-varieties of the race to the wants and circumstances of different portions of the country.

Upon the first introduction of the Saxons, they were sought with avidity by the holders of the fine-woolled flocks of the country, consisting at that time of pure or grade Merinos. Under the decisive encouragement offered both to the wool-grower and the manufacturer by the tariff of 1828, a great impetus was given to the production of the finest wools, and the Saxon everywhere superseded, or bred out by crossing, the Spanish Merinos. In New York and New England, the latter almost entirely disappeared. In the fine-wool mania which ensued, weight of fleece, constitution, and every thing else, were sacrificed to the quality of the wool. Then came the tariff of 1832, which, as well as that of 1828, gave too much protection to both wool-grower and manufacturer, into whose pursuits agricultural and mercantile speculators madly rushed. Skill without capital, capital without skill, and in some cases, probably, thirst for gain without either, laid hold of these favored avocations. The natural and inevitable result followed. In the financial crisis of 1837, manufacturing, and all other monetary enterprises which had not been conducted with skill and providence, and which were not based on an adequate and vast capital, were involved in a common destruction; and even the most solid and best conducted institutions of the country were shaken by the fury of the explosion. Wool suddenly fell almost fifty per cent. The grower began to be discouraged. The breeder of the delicate Saxons--and they comprised the flocks of nearly all the large wool-growers in the country, at that time--could not obtain for his wool its actual first cost per pound.

When the Saxon growers found that the tariff of 1842 brought them no relief, they began to give up their costly and carefully nursed flocks. The example once set, it became contagious; and then was a period when it seemed as if all the Saxon sheep of the country would be sacrificed to this reaction. Many abandoned wool-growing altogether, at a heavy sacrifice of their fixtures for rearing sheep; others crossed with coarse-woolled breeds; and, rushing from one extreme to the other, some even crossed with the English mutton breeds; or some, with more judgment, went back to the parent Merino stock, but usually selected the heaviest and coarsest-woolled Merinos, and thus materially deteriorated the character of their wool. This period became distinguished by a mania for heavy fleeces. The English crosses were, however, speedily abandoned. The Merino regained his supremacy, lost for nearly a quarter of a century, and again became the popular favorite. It was generally adopted by those who were commencing flocks in the new Western States, and gives its type to the sheep of those regions.

The supply of fine wool, then, proportionably decreased, and that of medium and coarse increased. Wools, for convenience, may be classified as follows: _superfine_, the choicest quality grown in the United States, and never grown here excepting in comparatively small quantities; _fine_, good ordinary Saxon; _good medium_, the highest quality of wool usually known in the market as Merino; _medium_, ordinary Merino; _ordinary_, grade Merino and selected South-Down fleeces; and, _coarse_, the English long-wools, etc. This subdivision is, perhaps, minute enough for all practical purposes here.

It soon became apparent that, to sustain our manufacturing interest--that engaged in the manufacture of fine cloths--the diminution of fine wools should not only be at once arrested, but that the growth of them should be immediately and largely increased. An increased attention was accordingly bestowed upon this branch of industry, and sections of the country which had previously held aloof from wool-growing, embarked in that calling with commendable enterprise.

The climate north of forty-one degrees, or, beyond all dispute, north of forty-two degrees, is too severe for any variety of sheep commonly known, which bear either superfine or fine wools. In fact, the only such variety in any thing like general use is the Saxon; and this, as has been remarked, is a delicate sheep, entirely incapable of safely withstanding our northern winters, without good shelter, good and regularly-administered food, and careful and skilful management in all other particulars. When the season is a little more than usually back-hand, so that grass does not start prior to the lambing season, it is difficult to raise the lambs of the mature ewes; the young ewes will, in many instances, disown their lambs, or, if they own them, not have a drop of milk for them; and if, under such circumstances, as often happens, a northeast or a northwest storm comes driving down, bearing snow or sleet in its wings, or there is a sudden depression of the temperature from any cause, no care will save multitudes of lambs from perishing. If the time of having the lambs dropped is deferred, for the purpose of escaping these evils, they will not attain size and strength sufficient to enable them to pass safely through their first winter. North of the latitude last named, it is necessary, as a general rule, that they be dropped in the first half of May, to give them this requisite size and strength; and occasional cold storms come, nearly every season, up to that period, and, not unfrequently, up to the first of June.

These considerations have had their weight even with the few large sheep-holders in that section, whose farms and buildings have been arranged with exclusive reference to the rearing of these sheep; many of whom have adopted a Merino cross. With the ordinary farmers--the small sheep-owners, who, in the aggregate, grow by far the largest portion of the northern wools--the Saxon sheep is, for these reasons, in marked disrepute. They have not the necessary fixtures for their winter protection, and are unwilling to bestow the necessary amount of care on them. Besides, mutton and wool being about an equal consideration with this class, they want larger and earlier maturing breeds. Above all, they want a strong, hardy sheep, which demands no more care than their cattle. The strong, compact, medium-woolled Merino, or, more generally, its crosses with coarse varieties, producing the wool classed as ordinary, is the common favorite. In the Northwest, this is especially the case, where the climate is still worse for delicate sheep.

At the South, on the contrary--where these disadvantages do not exist to so great an extent, certainly--wool varying from good medium upward are more profitable staples for cultivation than the lower classes; and in that section a high degree of fineness in fleece has been sought in breeding the Merino--the four-pound fine-fleeced Merino having received marked attention. This is a far more profitable animal than the Saxon, other things being equal--which is not the case, since the former is every way a hardier animal and a better nurse; and, although about twenty pounds heavier, and therefore consuming more feed, this additional expense is more than counterbalanced by the additional care and risk attending the husbandry of the Saxon.

POINTS OF THE MERINO.

For breeding purposes, the shape and general appearance of the Merino should be as follows:--The head should be well carried up, and in the ewe hornless. It would be better, on many accounts, to have the ram also hornless, but, as horns are usually characteristic of the Merino ram, many prefer to see them. The face should be rather short, broad between the eyes, the nose pointed, and, in the ewe, fine and free from wrinkles. The eye should be bright, moderately prominent, and gentle in its expression. The neck should be straight--not curving downward--short, round, and stout--particularly so at its junction with the shoulder, forward of the upper point of which it should not sink below the level of the back. The points of the shoulder should not rise to any perceptible extent above the level of the back. The back, to the hips, should be straight; the crops--that portion of the body immediately back of the shoulder-blades--full; the ribs well arched; the body large and capacious; the flank well let down; the hind-quarters full and round--the flesh meeting well down between the thighs, or in the "twists." The bosom should be broad and full; the legs short, well apart, and perpendicular--that is, not drawn under the body toward each other when the sheep is standing. Viewed as a whole, the Merino should present the appearance of a low, stout, plump, and--though differing essentially from the English mutton-sheep model--a highly symmetrical sheep.

The skin is an important point. It should be loose, singularly mellow, and of a rich, delicate pink color. A colorless skin, or one of a tawny, approaching to a butternut, hue, indicates bad breeding. On the subject of wrinkles, there is a difference of opinion. As they are rather characteristic of the Merino--like the black color in a Berkshire hog, or the absence of all color in Durham cattle--these wrinkles have been more regarded, by novices, than those points which give actual value to the animal; and shrewd breeders have not been slow to act upon this hint. Many have contended that more wool can be obtained from a wrinkled skin; and this view of the case has led both the Spanish and French breeders to cultivate them largely--the latter, to a monstrosity. An exceedingly wrinkled neck, however, adds but little to the weight of the fleece--not enough, in fact, to compensate for the deformity, and the great impediment thus placed in the way of the shearer. A smoothly drawn skin, and the absence of all dead lap, would not, on the other hand, perhaps be desirable.

The wool should densely cover the whole body, where it can possibly grow--from a point between and a little below the eyes, and well up on the cheeks, to the knees and hocks. Short wool may show, particularly in young animals, on the legs, even below the knees and hocks; but long wool covering the legs, and on the nose, below the eyes, is unsightly, without value; while on the face it frequently impedes the sight of the animal, causing it to be in a state of perpetual alarm, and disqualifying it to escape real danger. Neither is this useless wool the slightest indication of a heavy fleece--contrary to what seems to be thought by some. It is very often seen in Saxons shearing scarcely two pounds of wool, and on the very lightest fleeced Merinos.

The amount of gum which the wool should exhibit is another mooted point. Merino wool should be yolky, or oily, prior to washing--though not to the extreme extent, occasionally witnessed, of giving it the appearance of being saturated with grease. The extreme tips may exhibit a sufficient trace of gum to give the fleece a darkish cast, particularly in the ram; but a black, pitchy gum, resembling half-hardened tar, extending an eighth or a quarter of an inch into the fleece, and which cannot be removed by ordinary washing, is decidedly objectionable. There is a white or yellowish concrete gum, not removable by common washing, which appears in the interior of some fleeces, and is equally objectionable.

The weight of fleece remaining the same, medium length of staple, with compactness, is preferable to long, open wool, since it constitutes a better safeguard from inclemencies of weather, and better protects the animal from the bad effects of cold and drenching rains in spring and fall. The wool should be, as nearly as possible, of even length and thickness over the entire body. Shortness on the flank, and shortness or thickness on the belly, are serious defects.

Evenness of fleece is a point of the first importance. Many sheep exhibit good wool on the shoulder and side, while it is far coarser and even hairy on the thighs, dew-lap, etc. Rams of this stamp should not be bred from by any one aiming to establish a superior fine-woolled flock; and all such ewes should gradually be excluded from those selected for breeding.

The style of the wool is a point of as much importance as mere fineness. Some very fine wool is stiff, and the fibres almost straight, like hair. It has a dry, cottony look; and is a poor, unsalable article, however fine the fibre. Softness of wool--a delicate, silky, highly elastic feel between the fingers or on the lips, is the first thing to be regarded. This is usually an index, or inseparable attendant, of the other good qualities; so much so, indeed, that an experienced judge can decide, with little difficulty, between the quality of two fleeces, in the dark. Wool should be finely serrated, or crimped from one extremity to the other: that is, it should present a regular series of minute curves; and, generally, the greater the number of these curves in a given length, the higher the quality of the wool in all other particulars. The wool should open on the back of the sheep in connected masses, instead of breaking up into little round spiral ringlets of the size of a pipe-stem, which indicate thinness of fleece; and when the wool is pressed open each way with the hands, it should be close enough to conceal all but a delicate rose-colored line of skin. The interior of the wool should be a pure, glittering white, with a lustre and liveliness of appearance not surpassed in the best silk.

The points in the form of the Merino which the breeder is called upon particularly to avoid are, a long, thin head, narrow between the eyes; a thin, long neck, arching downward before the shoulders; narrow loins; flat ribs; steep, narrow hind-quarters; long legs; thighs scarcely meeting at all; and legs drawn far under the body at the least approach of cold. All these points were, separately or conjointly, illustrated in many of the Saxon flocks which have been swept from the country. Sufficient attention has already been paid to the points to be avoided in the fleece.

BREEDING MERINOS.

The first great starting-point, among pure-blood animals, is, that "like will beget like." If the sire and ewe are perfect in any given points, the offspring will generally be; if either is defective, the offspring--subject to a law which will possibly be noticed--will be half-way between the two; if both are defective in the same points, the progeny will be more so than either of its parents--it will inherit the amount of defect in both parents added together. There are exceedingly few perfect animals. Breeding, therefore, is a system of counterbalancing--breeding out--in the offspring, the defects of one parent, by the marked excellence of the other parent, in the same points. The highest blood confers on the parent possessing it the greatest power of stamping its own characteristics on its progeny; but, blood being the same, the male sheep possesses this power in a greater degree than the female. We may, therefore, in the beginning, breed from ewes possessing any defects short of cardinal ones, without impropriety, provided we possess the proper ram for that purpose; but, where a high standard of quality is aimed at, all ewes possessing even considerable defects should gradually be thrown out from breeding. Every year should add to the vigor of the selection.

But, from the beginning--and at the beginning, more than at any other time--the greatest care should be evinced in the selection of the ram. If he has a defect, that defect is to be inherited by the whole future flock; if it is a material one--as, for example, a hollow back, bad cross, or thin fleece, or a highly uneven fleece--the flock will be one of low quality and little value. If, on the other hand, he is perfect, the defects in the female will be lessened, and gradually bred out. It being, however, difficult to find perfect rams, those should be taken which have the fewest and lightest defects, and none of these material, like those just enumerated. These defects are to be met and counterbalanced by the decided excellence--sometimes, indeed, running into a fault--of the ewe, in the same points. If the ram, then, is a little too long-legged, the shortest-legged ewes should be selected for him; if gummy, the dryest-woolled; if his fleece is a trifle below the proper standard of fineness--but he has been retained, as often happens, for weight of fleece and general excellence--he is to be put to the finest and lightest-fleeced ewes, and so on. With a selection of rams, this system of counterbalancing would require but little skill, if each parent possessed only a single fault. If the ewe be a trifle too thin-fleeced, and good in all other particulars, it would require no nice judgment to decide that she should be bred to an uncommonly thick-fleeced ram. But most animals possess, to a greater or less degree, several defects. To select so that every one of these in the dam shall meet its opposite in the male, and the contrary, requires not only plentiful materials from which to select, but the keenest discrimination.