Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1857-04-18
NJ | S c E L L A N Y.
FINE WOOL SHEEP.

Extract from the Speech of Hon. j. Colldmer on
the Tariff and Wool interest Delivered in The
u. s. Senate, Feb 26h, 1857.
There are no fine wools in the world. raised
anywhere on this earth, which are not all from
the same family of sheep. BY fine WOOL |
mean such wool as is sometimes called spinning
wool, which is spun and wove into broadcloths,
and kerseymeres, especially those which are re-
quired TO take a finish that is, after they are
wove and lulled, there is face raised upon
them by either carding or teasleing, and then
they are sheared and pressed and caendered
for the purpose Of making finish on them
That can be done only with fulling wool. Now,
where do the fuling woods come from | say
they are all from the same family of sheep.
At the period of our earliest acquaintance
with Spain. there was found certain breed of
sheep called merino sheep. We do not know
how early they were there. We have some
inklings that they were there at as early Pc
riod as the Romans had control of the country.
Where they came from we know not; but the
word ''merino" means lover the sea- and it
was connected with the idea that these sheep
came over the sea, so that probably they were
not indigenous 10 Spain originally. This is
the family of sheep out of which all the fine
wool sheep Of the world we're produced. For
number of centuries these sheep were entire
ly owned by the nobility and royal family of
Spain. They were pastured and driven north
in summer, and south in the winter, so that
RsE asle YsP hTas ii large kRD On fge TlJAGS
into Andalusia, and north into CASTLE. For
many centuries men were prohibited, under the
most severe penalties, from carrying any sheep
out of the kingdom. A man who exported a
sheep was sentenced to the galleys for life
None Of these sheep were obtained in the rest
of Europe In 1884 or l7s5-I will not he
exact in the date, but at any rate between 1850
and l790-lhe King Of Spain gave flock of
these sheep, forty in number, to George the
Third The English King gave him, as a
royal present in return, six English coach hor-
ses These sheep were placed at Windsor,
under the care of Sir Joseph Banks, and the
utmost exertions were made TO induce the use
of that kind of fine sheep among the farmers
of England. To this day England does not
raise pound Of wool out Of which you can
make yard of broadcoth that any gentleman
in this house wears For long time all her
fine wool has come from abroad. After Spain
went into the business Of digging gold in South
America, all her wool was exported to Eng land
there manufactured, and sent back TO Spain to
be sold, and they dug gold 10 pay for it. The
result has been, that while they have run down,
England has run up.
wish to show why that flock Of sheep did
| -. onI 81 ,l
ence between thei: condition and ours, to see
why fine woods succeed here and cannot there
At the same time that that present was made
to George the Third, similar present wa:
made to Louis the Sixteenth. The flock giver
to the King Of France was put on the Ram
boullet farm, which was then the royal farm
and is still, Bonaparte having always kept it
That flock of sheep, bred in, as l shall hereaf
ter mention, is the French merino of the pres
ent day.
At the same time the same present was mad'
to the Elector of Saxony. The flock whicl
went TO the Elector of Saxony was attended II
and selected all the time for the finest wool
without regard 10 size. The French selected
with regard to size. The Germans selected
for fneness OF wool merely. The flock givel
to the Elector of Saxony is the basis, the ori
gin, the parentage of all the Saxony wool O
the world now to be found all over Bavaria
Silesia, Hungary, and Russia, and this countr
as shall directly show.
About the latter part of the last century
there was introduced into England that branc
of farming called the turnip culture, which i
the basis of prosperity TO the English agricul
turists at the present day. Everything in Eng
land which sustains human life, everything tina
the people could eat, was very dear, as we al
know, until recent period, since they hav
taken off their sliding scale of duties on wheat
and allowed foreign provisions to be INTRODUCES
for the benefit of manufactures. The turn
culture was this; they sowed large field, es
} pecially on the downs of Eng land, with turnip
generally the Swedish turnips--and then i
the fall of the year they would put upon tn
turnip fields flock of their native long woo
sheep--the best improved breeds Of which ar
the South Downs and the Leicestershires.-
Those sheep ate the turnips on the ground
There was no gathering them-no cutting ther
up. When they exhausted one field they wer
to another, and so on through the wintcr. Th
climate being mild, they wintered in the field
on the turnips, and were in fine condition fc
mutton in the spring. A mutton sheep in Eng
land at that day and now, averages from eight
TO one hundred pounds dressed of. The frenc
merinoes, with all the improvements they coul
G give them by breeding in, do not average moi
than forty pounds dressed of. The mutton {