Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1868-05-27
The Origin and improvement Of the
MeIinO.
BY g. W. coLBuRN


wool was confined TO the home Of the grower,
and to the fulling cooring and dressing mill
all done in comparatively secluded manner,
there was less room for the stimulation and
exercise of genius than at the present day.
Nor were our feeces then what they are now
4 vast improvement has been effected by the
introduction Of foreign sheep, and marked
improvement upon them here in quality of
fleece and while doing this it bchooye. Us to
be cautious not to deterorate the constitution
or natural hardihood which our hocks should
retain from the original foreign blood.
In what country and at what period the
meriao was brought into HIGH degree of
perfection as "a fine wooded bearing sheen. we
have no certain data to rely upon. We found
them in Spain, and the late VIM. Jarvis, con.
sui at libson when the Spanish hocks were
broken up and sold, and who purchased laroe-
ly from them and sent to this country, tells
us that the word mcrin0 in the Spanish dia-
lect means from over the sea, or from beyond
sea, indicating that they were brought into
that country from some other, beyond sea.
and gave it as his opinion that they came in
to Spain from Greece or Italy. That this
breed of sheep came from the original stock
like all other breeds, from one common pa-
rent, there seems to be no doubt. but what
strikes Us as remarkable, is, the long line of
persistent and skilful breeding it must have
taken to produce such an astonishing effect
\ radical change as It would seem in the
very nature of the animal. But when we
look at the change that has been wronobt
within the last twenty years here in Vernont
in the merino il does not anno,r 40 oy,roor.
binary, when for auoht we know thousands of
wears might have been occunied to brin,, tbo
merino M TO what we found him from tho
common stock. 1t appears. however that
this Improvement in the sheen and the culturo
of its fleece. received some violent cbects
throuoh the shirt of the anternrise was no,
annihilated and revived when tho nc,hns
that had denressed noseod avoy II i no.,
raj to suppose from all we can clean from the
imperfect history of the improved or fine
wooded race. that they PASSED from Greoce
into Italy. and in the conquest of the Roman
arms. were carried into some or their rrov;n.
ees. and in ibis wav were PLANTED in sen
But when Rome toitered TO its fonndotiop
and the artizan was driven from his loom
and the farmer from the culture of his fields
the shepherd from his flock. and songht IN
forget in solitude the oppression and destr,e.
tion that had fallen nnon his country tho
human faculties lost their vigor and soncbt
only what was essential 10 tbcir evistence'
The presence of the yanda converted tbe;r
cultivated fields into barren wastes he;r
towns and cities into brutality and r,nine
The subsistence of the farmer was most nre.
earious. his herds and aocks grozed only Inv
suferance; and when tyranny had done il.
utmost. the man himself WAS claimed ne the
property of a master who had marked the
boundaries of his land. Such oppression did
not destroy the existence of the fleece no,
render the sheep naturally ineapable of nro.
uohe III FORMER years nut IL rendered the