does best on high, airy,
and dry land. These fleeces all pass as wool, but the microscope shows a
marked and permanent difference, and one can easily learn to distinguish
it at once, by the touch and with the naked eye. This is thrown out here
to induce a thorough examination of the whole subject. There are three
staples of wool, short, three inches long, middling, five inches, and
long, eight inches. Varieties of sheep are numerous. We shall only
mention a few. The question of the best breeds has been warmly
controverted. We have no disposition to try to settle it. The question
of the best variety must depend upon locality and design. If the wool is
the object, then the Vermont Merino for the North, and the pure Saxony
for the South, are evidently the best. If located near large cities,
where the flesh is the main object, then the large-bodied, long-wooled
breeds are much preferable. Among those much esteemed we note the
following:--

The _Cotswold_ mature young, and the flesh will vary in weight from
fifteen to thirty pounds per quarter. The _New Leicester_ is less hardy
than the Cotswold, but heavier, weighing from twenty-four to thirty-six
pounds per quarter. The _Teeswater sheep_, improved by a cross with the
Leicester, is considered valuable. The _Bampton_ is one of the very best
grown in England. Fat ewes average twenty pounds per quarter, and
wethers from thirty to thirty-five pounds. The _Sussex_, _Hampshire,
and Shropshire_ varieties of the Down sheep, are all highly esteemed.
The _Leicester_ are very valuable. An ordinary fleece weighs from three
to five pounds. Mr. Joseph Beers of New Jersey had one that sheared
thirteen pounds at one time, and the live weight of the sheep was 378
pounds.

There are _French_, _Silesian_, and _Spanish Merinoes_, much esteemed in
Vermont and elsewhere. The average weight of a flock of ewes of French
merinoes after shearing was 103 pounds. Their fleeces averaged twelve
pounds and eight ounces. The fleece of one buck of the same flock
weighed twenty pounds and twelve ounces.

[Illustration: The French Merino Ram.]

The _Silesian Merinoes_ are smaller, but produce beautiful fleeces. In a
flock of nineteen ewes, the average weight of fleece was seven pounds
and ten ounces, and that of the buck weighed ten and a half pounds.

A large flock of _Spanish Merinoes_ yielded an average of a little over
five pounds of well-washed wool. All these varieties are valuable for
wool. The