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longer which contribute to their deterioration. If we add that this deterioration, which takes place upon the largest surface, affects the wools which have the greatest value, (for the fine woolens are worth more than the coarse ones,) we shall have the approximate estimation of the deterioration of the one and the other.

Thus are these principles laid down: 1st. The merino wool, very fine, very elastic, the most suitable for carding, can only be readily obtained upon healthy pastures, and these sufficient although not abundant, and through the means of a diet nearly as nutritious in winter as in summer. 2d. The production of a fine and dense fleece is detrimental to the production of meat. 3d. Fine wool is produced best when the conditions are proper, viz: the animals are to be sheltered the longest time possible, in folds, from the injurious action of the rain; from the drought, as well as from the soil, dust, sand, &c., which adheres to the fleeces.

If the pastures are abundant; if the sheep are sought after for the slaughter-house; if the breeders are obliged to leave their sheep in the open air, which takes place during the whole "transhumance" and during the season of folding, the attempt to produce the very fine wools will be a failure.

It is then often considered as being good economy to prefer the merinos better fed, more productive for the slaughter-house, to the merinos poorly fed, of a slow growth and of small size, which produce the finest and the dearest wools. In that case, one endeavors also to compensate the decrease in the quality of the wool by the abundance of the fleece; in order to be able to produce with profit a material of less value, one seeks to obtain it in larger quantity.

Before the long merino wools were in demand for combing purposes by manufacturers, the breeders exerted themselves to obtain heavy fleeces through the great development which they endeavored to give to the skin of the sheep. Nature produced in the merino breed, some animals which have a folded skin under the neck, around the neck, near the knee-pan and upon

their buttocks; these sheep yield more wool than if their skin had a less surface. Some breeders have preferred rams whose skin was very folded (wrinkled), and they have not been long in making these folds hereditary; but if they have been successful by this means to increase the weight of the fleeces, they have spoiled a part of these fleeces; and, moreover, they have diminished the qualities sought for in the sheep, with respect to the slaughter-house.

In fact, singular modifications are then remarked in the texture of the skin, and of the wool it secretes. The skin becomes white, dry, and very thick at the place of the folds; the wool there also becomes harsh, very stiff, and so inferior to that of the good parts of the fleece that it is of very little value.

Another criticism which the sheep with folded skins occasion, is of more importance, viz: Every time that one increases the extent of the skin, the extent of the mucous membrane of the gastro-intestinal canal is liable to be increased. This result is observed in the ox species as well as in that of the sheep. If we examine the animals which have considerable dew-lap and a folded skin, we will feel assured that, in consequence of the extent of the mucous gastro-intestine, these animals have generally a large belly. The kind of food has much influence upon the development of the belly; very nutritious food in a small compass (bulk) diminishes its space (capacity); food less nutritious, on the contrary, increases it. What I wish to say, is that with the same food the animals whose skin is very extended are inclined to have a greatly developed intestinal organ. The space occupied by the abdominal cavity injures that of the thorax; the inclination which exists upon the inferior walls of the abdomen, from the pubis to the sternum causes the digestive viscus (organs) to weigh upon the diaphragm, and renders the breathing less extended; experience proves that animals thus built remain smaller than those which have a different form, and that they cost more to fatten. It is a fact known to many breeders, and which is particularly appreciated by all the English breeders, that all the breeds destined for the slaughter-house of our

neighbors, never have their skin folded nor the belly inordinately developed at the expense of the breast.

Convinced through experience that the sheep whose skin is folded have the serious defects just described, most of the breeders no longer seek to obtain heavy fleeces through the use of rams of this lower breed; they now prefer the use of rams whose fleece possesses the desired length for the comb, and has all the density which such a long wool will admit of. These sheep may be fed abundantly without any inconvenience, because if the wool loses its fineness, it acquires as a compensation much strength of resistance; and, moreover, the food contributes to the rapid development of the animals. After these general considerations upon the wools for carding and those which are more suitable for combing, I think that the Mauchamp breed can be relied upon for the improvement of the latter. But since the sheep which produce a combing wool are at the same time to be a mutton sheep, and as the Mauchamp breed unfortunately at first struck the breeders as being very unfavorable for the production of food, it is indispensable that I should enter into particular details upon the origin of this breed, and upon the changes it has experienced.

They call the Mauchamp breed a new type of merinos, one which produces a straight, smooth, and silky wool, similar in its form to the long English wool, but very much softer and finer.

Thanks to M. Graux, farmer on the Mauchamp estate, near Berry-aubac, department of Aisne, the creation of this new type dates back as far as the year 1828. The Mauchamp farm, composed of not very fertile lands, subsisted a flock of merinos, of medium size, for a long time, when in 1828 one ewe dropped a male lamb which was distinguished from all others by its wool and horns. Its straight, smooth, and silky wool was not thick; each lock, composed of staples unequal in length, ended in a point. The appearance of the horns alone, almost smooth on their surface, indicated that the wool was to be straight, or at most, very little crimped, for the hair and horns have, by their

mode of secretion, so much affinity with each other that the wool cannot be modified without the horns indicating the same modifications. This ram, which was very small, presented, in its form, defects which we at first shall see reproduce themselves, and which it became necessary to make "breed out" afterwards.

Struck with the strangeness of its fleece, foreseeing the advantage that could be derived from it, M. Graux used this ram in 1829, with the intention of using rams in the future which should have the same kind of wool. The crop of lambs of 1830 yielded one ram lamb and one ewe lamb only with silk wool; that of 1831 produced four lambs only and one ewe that had these desired qualities. Finally, it was in 1832 only that the rams with silky wool were numerous enough to serve the flock.

These rams were shown, for the first time, to the agriculturists in 1835, on the occasion of a public meeting of the agricultural committee of Roxoy (Seirne-et-Mane). I was then afforded an opportunity to study them; I ascertained that their forms were very bad for the slaughter-house. Their heads were inordinately large, necks long, breasts narrow, flanks long, and knees drawn very closely together. Whether this creation is to be considered an accidental one or not, M. Graux was endeavoring not only to preserve the silky character of the wool, but also to remove the defects in form just mentioned.

It has not been an easy matter to obtain this double result. In fact, since the rams of the new type are bred to the merino ewes at Mauchamp, this is what has been produced: The ewes preserve the qualities of the old breed, and produce a dull-appearing wool, a little longer and softer than the ordinary merino wool; the others, on the contrary, resemble the rams of the new breed; they have precisely the same wool, but, very often, their defective forms also. Each year reproduces the two kinds of lambs.

Well constituted rams have been very difficult to find, because the lambs with silky wool were not at first numerous in comparison with those that preserved the ordinary merino wool.

Little by little, it is true, the former have become more abundant; but the progression has been so slow that the yeaning of 1847-'48, which produced 153 lambs, still produced 22 whose wool had the appearance of ordinary merinos. From this one may judge how long and difficult it is to establish a new type or to "fix" a variation from an old one.

We must, however, mention an important fact, namely, that breeding the rams to ewes with well characterized silky wool has, even from 1829, always produced lambs with silky wool also; so that, from the beginning of its formation, the breed has been steadily fixed in its type. Notwithstanding the many difficulties and discouragements at Mauchamp, the animals have been gradually improved in their forms; their flanks are shorter, their loins larger, and their necks shortened. The breast has become more full, particularly towards the sternum (breast bone); if sometimes it retains some narrowness, it is on the side of the withers. Finally, their heads are smaller, but without contracting the cranium. This smaller space depends upon the disappearance of the horns. The horns uselessly increase the space of the head of the adult animal, and moreover they cause in the foetus a great thickness in the bones of the cranium (skull,) that the parturition of it becomes sometimes very laborious. It was advantageous to eliminate these useless and dangerous parts; the perseverance in this direction has caused the horns to disappear in the later generations of rams.

Improved in its form, the new type reproduces nearly the forms of the old merino breed; M. Graux intends to demonstrate it by sending twenty sheep with silky wool to the Fair at Paris. Experience demonstrates that the silky type requires the same food as the old breed. Experiments have been made with animals of the two types or breeds still existing in the flock at Mauchamp, and thus it has been ascertained that, with the same treatment and the same diet, they acquire the same weight.

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