to the weight of the fleece, the density of the skin, and the nature of the hair upon the skin of the fold, the animal is considered the more valuable the more monstrous it appears in this particular. Therein we cannot see any originality of race, but only an original view and strange taste, which must have a detrimental effect upon the profitableness of breeding.

2. Regardless efforts to increase the quantity of wool. The unfavorable results of the efforts to produce the finest wool by the breeding of Electorals, could not fail to astonish the agriculturist calculating more closely now than formerly. A change of views was brought about, and the reaction often caused the breeder to fall from one extreme into the other. The fineness of wool, which in many cases it had cost the efforts of a generation to bring to this state of perfection, was sacrificed with a certain self-compla cency; the nobility, the equality, the truthfulness of the wool were hazarded, and surrendered to the blind demands for large quantities of wool. It seemed to be advantageous and timely to break with the things gone by, to forget the established doctrine in regard to the wool fibres and staple, and to make the further process dependent on the principle "that science must go backward."

"Nunguam retrorsum " the greeting with which the advocate of retrogression was received at one of the finest festivals of our days, also ought to be a warning admonition to us in our industrial efforts.

If the opinion were correct, which declares it impossible to combine a heavy weight of fleece with those qualities requisite in an excellent clothwool, then this passion for quantity, and nothing but quantity, might pass, but since this combination is feasible, as has been evidently proved by an intelligent breeding of Negrettis, with proper regard to wool, it must be considered a precipitation of things, if we, in adopting the Negretti breed in the place of the Escurial, would not save as many as possible of the superior qualities of the latter race, but throw away the good things with the evil. We must lift up a voice of warning when we hear of the selection of a buck for Escurial flocks "rich in poverty and nobility" made, with remarks like the following: "I do not care for fineness and the like; I need a buck with many folds, which has furnished a heavy weight of fleece." Such purchasers are good customers for a number of Negretti flocks whose proprietors endeavor to furnish the material for this taste, and with the aid of a little hocus pocus a nice and profitable business may done with such men. Such and similar views are not essential to the breeding of Negrettis; and if the former breeder of Escurials, wishing to im prove his flock by Negretti blood, will look about, he will find that many stock flocks offer him the opportunity of acquiring animals for breeding

be

which will furnish him with the desired quantity of wool, without depriving his flock of its innate superiority of fleece.

Yet I must repeatedly and expressly remark, that in this connection I always presume such agricultural conjunctures as render it not advisable to cultivate the fattening propensity of the Merino sheep and enhance its worth to the butcher, at the expense of the quality of the wool; that I, in a word, hitherto have spoken of sheep kept for producing wool, and of breeding them for that purpose in connection with the production of clothwool.

But the thing is otherwise if remunerative meat-prices and a sure sale of fattened animals induce the agriculturist to breed sheep for the sake of their meat. Surely there are junctures in which, even in connection with proportionately satisfactory and encouraging prices of fat sheep, it is not advisable to adopt the English breeds or their crosses with Merinos in the place of the latter race, but in which it appears to be more profitable to keep the Merino sheep, and to develop and cultivate its fattening quality as far as the race admits of it. Then the tendency in breeding becomes another one. The excellency requisite in a cloth-wool, to pass for a valuable article and command a high price, is derived from a combination of properties, which have been mentioned so often in this essay that I need not repeat them here. To keep them all combined in the highest possible state of perfection, is a feasible end, even with the addition of quantity. But if another new demand is added, namely, that the animal shall excel by those properties which are requisite in sheep bred for the sake of their meat, without any loss in the quality and quantity of its wool, then the sum of these demands can not be satisfied. If the market demands the production of meat to such an extent as may be practical in the breeding of Merinos, and if the establishment possesses sufficient feeding material to make the operation successful, then the breeder must give up the produc tion of a noble cloth-wool, and engage in the more modest production of card-wool; for the sum of the properties requisite for the latter are more limited, and the demands made by the manufacturer of a good card-wool, is more easily satisfied in connection with an increasing production of meat. Then the production of wool is less troublesome, because the breeder is relieved of the anxious attention he has to pay to the preservation of the large sum of properties requisite in a good cloth-wool, and hence he meets with no serious obstacles in making his animal better qualified for the production of meat. As is the case with the English races, the production of card-wool will occupy the fore-ground, where the Merino race constitutes the material for breeding to further the production of meat. The price of that article of wool, of course, is considerably depressed by the

great consumption at home and from abroad, yet the revenue derived from the sale of wool may still be satisfactory if the flock yields a heavy weight of fleeces. The riches in wool in a flock producing card-wool, which, at the same time, is kept and bred for the production of meat, will be the chief among the properties which should be cultivated. Under these junctures, such stock flocks as are frequently found in France are of incalculable value. The German Merino breeds also present a very desirable material for breeding, for the above-stated purposes, as is shown by several flocks of Mechlenburg, bred with this tendency, and among these that of Boldebuck, above-mentioned. Though the blood of the latter, and kindred stock flocks, is not adapted for improving flocks which are bred for the production of a noble cloth-wool, yet it is desirable and valuable for the production of Merino card-wool, in connection with the production of

meat.

ADDRESS OF HON. HENRY S. RANDALL. Delivered before the Ohio Wool Grower's Association, in Columbus, Jan. 6, 1864

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Wool Grower's Association of Ohio:

The present is an extraordinary epoch in the history of the woolen interests of our country. Under the stimulus of the high prices paid for the raw material, production has increased far more rapidly during the last two years than at any preceding period. The United States census returns the number of sheep in the United States, in 1850, as 21,723,220, and in 1860 as 22,163,105,* an increase of but two per cent. in ten years. Of the latter number, there were in the loyal States and Territories, 18,251,328.† In 1862, a much larger proportion than usual, and in 1863, nearly the entire number of breeding sheep in the country, of good age, were saved from the usual diminution caused by slaughtering the fleshy ones; and proportionately few ewe lambs were sold in either year to the butcher. If we assume that the annual increase of our sheep, including breeders and non-breeders, is fifty per cent.; that half of this increase are ewes; and that ten per cent. will cover the number of breeding sheep which are annually drafted from flocks for old age, which die of disease, or are destroyed by casualties, (and especially that worst of all casualties, dogs,) we still have, for the past year, an increase of fifteen per cent. in breeding sheep, leaving wethers out of view.

The gentlemen in the U. S. Department of Agriculture inform me, that from that data collected from the correspondence of that office, they estimate the entire increase of 1863, (including wethers,) at twenty-five per cent., and the entire increase of the last four years at forty per cent., or 7,300,531 sheep, which, added to the previous number, gives an aggregate

"This differs from the summary in the preliminary report of the census, which contains an error of 1,154,651, in the return from Indiana." I take this statement from the article on the "Condition and Prospect of Sheep Husbandry," in the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1862, which may be regarded as official, having been prepared by J. R. Dodge, Esq., of the Commissioner's Office. The same article states that "there were returned by the assistant marshals, not included in the regular returns, because not owned by farmers, 1,505,810, making the aggregate 23,668,915."

↑ Viz: Sheep owned by farmers, 16,263,718; additional not owned by farmers, 1,101,282; in the Territories, 886,328.

of 25,551,859 now in the loyal States, which is 1,882,944 more than the total number in all the States in 1860.

I regard this estimate as rather high. Some of the border loyal States have been ravaged by war, and the probability is that their number of sheep has not much increased since the last U. S. census was taken. I am not disposed to put the entire increase of 1863 at more than twenty per cent.

It certainly has been vastly more rapid than this-unprecedently rapid in some of the new States and Territories, for a period of several years. I will cite two examples. The St. Paul Press gives the following statistics of wool production in Minnesota:

The people of that State anticipate that when their State Census is taken in 1865, their flocks will have increased to 500,000 sheep, and their wool clip to 2,000,000.

In a paper read before the California State Agricultural Society, by James E. Perkins, Secretary of the California Wool Growers' Association, it is estimated that the following amounts of wool were produced in that State in the years indicated:

The highest average quarterly prices paid for wool during the thirtyfive years which closed with 1861, were 75c. for finé, 63c. for medium, and 50c. for coarse; and the two first named qualities commanded those prices but through a single quarter-the third one of 1831. During nine other quarters, or two years and three months, fine wools averaged 70c. and medium 60c. per pound. During seven of the same quarters, coarse wool averaged 50c., and during three of them 47c. per pound. Throughout the whole thirty-five years, fine wool averaged 50 3-10ths c., medium 42 8-10ths c., and coarse 35 5-10ths c. per pound. The wools above classed as fine, included Saxon, grade Saxon, and choice lightish fleeced American Merino; the medium included American Merino and grade down to half-blood; the coarse included one-fourth American Merino and below.

The period of thirty-five years above indicated, extends back to the first establishment of our woolen manufactures on any broad and broad and permanent