Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1857-06-12
Agricultural.

HISTORY OF FINE WOOL SHEEP.
The following, which we extract from the
speech delivered by Hon. j. CoLLAMER, ION
the Tariff and Wool interest" in the IT, S.
Senate, February 26th, will be found highly
interesting to all classes Of readers, and es
peeially to sheep breeders 1t is in reply to
the suggestion Of Mr. Hunter of Virginia,
that we did not raise fine wool in this coun-
try Mr.. CoLLAMEB says !.
There are no fine woods in the world, rails
ed anywhere on this earth, which are not all
from the same family of sheep BY fine wool,
l mean such wool as is sometimes called spin
ming wool, which is spun and wove into broad
cloths and kcrseymores, especially those which
are required to take a finish; that is, after
they are wovc and fullcd, there ia a face rails
ed upon them, by either carding or toaseling,
and then they are sheared and pressed and
calendered, for the purpose of making finish
on them. That can be done Gully with mllng
wool. Now, where do the nlling woods
come from; | say they arc all from the same
family of sheep.
At the period of our earliest acquaintance
with Spain, there was found a certain breed
of sheep called merino sheep. We do not
know how early they were there. We have
seen inklings that they were there at as early
period as the Romans had control OF the
country. Where they came from we know
not but the word "merno' means cover the
sea, and it was connected with the idea that
these sheep came over the sea, so that proba-
bly, they were not indigenous to Spain origi-
nally. This is the family of sheep out OF
which all the fine wool sheep of the world
were produced. For a number of centuries
these sheep were entirely owned by the nobil-
ity and royal family Of Spain. They were
pastured and driven north in summer, and
south in winter. SO that they wore always
kept on green fields. They were kept in large
hocks They roamed south into Andalusia
and north into CASTLE. For many oonturie,
men were prohibited, under the most sever,
penalties, from carrying any sheep out of the
kingdom. A man who exported sheep wa,
sentenced to the galleys for life. None O
these sheep were obtained in the rest of En-.
rope In 1884 OF 1851 will not be exac
in the date but at any rate between | $50 ant
l700-the Kingof Spain gave a flock Of thes,
sheep, forty in number, to George the Third
The English King gave him. as a royal pres
ent in return, sig English coach horses. Thes
sheep were placed at Windsor, under the car,
Of Sir Joseph Banks, and the utmost exer
tons were made to induce the use of tina
kind of fine sheep among the farmers of Eng
land. To this day, England does not raise ,
pound OF wool out Of which you can make 4
yard Of broadcloth that any gentleman in thi
house wears For a long time all her lin,
wool has come from abroad. After Spail
went into the business Of digging gold il
South America, all her wool was exported t.
England, there manufactured, and sent bael
to Spain TO be sold, and they dug gold to pa
for IT, The result has been that, while the
have run down, England has run up.
! wish TO show why that flock of sheep di
not succeed in England, and to show the dii
frsnce between their condition and ours, {
zee why fna woods auccee here and canno
She e. At the same time that that preson
was made to George the Third, similar pres
ont was made to Louis the Sixteenth. Tn
flock given TO the King Of France was put o
the ltamboullot farm, which was then the roy