The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-06-01
Sheep Snicrcsf.
Improvement of American Merinos.

WIN DNl Nv tNhHiNl ihA hlAtANf
greasy MeriuO rams" for advancing
the standard of fleece in quality and
weight. Not only was the percentage
of clcansed wool to be diminished, in
the opinion of these men, but the
vigor of flocks was to be impaired, the
size of animals reduced, and actual
Improvement i'm all essential respects
greatly retarded, even when the
damage was not irreparablc.
But the sequel has failed to confirm
the prophecy. Not only can excep-
tional animals be found at the present
time of greater excellence in all the
essentials which, in the popular mind,
60 to make up the perfect wool
producing sheep, but it is a fact too
patent tor controversy, that the flock
standard of the whole country is today
largely in advance Of what it was
fifteen or twenty Years ago. The
careful student and impartial historian
must accord to the Merino much OF
the credit for this improvement.
The increase IN the average weight of
ileeces during the last decade, shown
by official returns to be more than
forty per cent-though not entirely so,
is very largely the result of the quite
general infusion OF Merino blood
through the w~ool-bearing 1lOcks which
has taken place within that period.
Something is to go to the credit of
greater care, in attending TO thrift of
animals, and the increased size result
ing from better food and manipulation;
but after all this has been amply ac-
counted for, there remains much to be
placed to the credit Of the density and
vigorous growth of fleece, ~inseparable
from the ''wrinkles and grease" of
those better types of Mcrinos which
intelligent and far-secing men have
persistently adhered to in spite of
the sneers and predictions of failure
from those who held opposite opinions.
But these critics were not without
their value. The impartial historian
must accord to the men who opposed
the breeding of Merinos, in the type
then and now most popular, some
credit for the present excellence of
these animals. There was a necessity,
fifteen years ago, for such criticism as
would force Merino breeders to the
most careful investigation into the line
of breeding through which their choice
animals were traceable. TO his was
to be added a rigid exclusion of all an
imals of impaired constitutional vig"r;
and even the slightest deviation from a
recognized high standard of individual
excellence rendered animals inadmiss-
ible to the pens of the best breeders.
In so far as criticisms operated to
check the tendency of certain enthusi-
asts to produce abnormal results in
weights of unwashed ~fleeces, at the
sacrifice of other desirable character
istics-evcn though the critics were in
spired by some other motive-tlIey
were not without good results. This
land of limitlcss domain and unparal-
lelcd productiveness then, as now,
worthy to be the home of a type of
sheep combining excellent bodies with
superior flceces and men who, though
unable or unwilling to directly aid in
advancing the standard already at
tanned, by carping at defects they could
not or would not themselves alleviate,
became of service, in so far as they i'm
PEELED others to a more rigid scrutiny
into the mysteries of breeding for i'm
provement, and the result was that
many men became at least partial mas
tiers of a science of which they previ-
ously had but limited knowledge.
They found that the transmission of
fleece eXcellencles, TO be of permanent
benefit through succeeding generations
OF progeny, must be backed by all the
prcpotency that adheres to the highest
attainable physical and constitutional
vigOr. The men, who in years gone
by, foresaw the high standard now
reached and succeeded SO magniticentlv
III their efforts to attain il, sought no
eXcelIencics of covering that came at
the expense of size OF symmetry of car
cass; and those of today who would
achieve still higher possibilities in the
line of Improvement must "tread the
same paths that their fathers have
trod." if they would meet with CORES
ponding success. SO much has al
ready been done to relieve certain of
the heavier shearing specimens of Me-
rinos from the criticisms TO which
many prominent shearers were liable
n dozen years ago, that the standard
specimens of the present seem to have
so narrowed the limits of possible i'm.
provement as to discourage all but
men possessed of exceptional courage
and skill i'll breeding and flock man.
agcmcnt. These still see room beyond,
II are determined to occupy II. That
size and symmetry of carcass must be
kept apace with fleece improvement is
no longer Il question with these men,
and that the typical American Merino
of the future is to be an animal in
which flesh production is to combine
with wool production in securing the
maximum profits from flock manage
ment, can be disputed only by those
who, though having eyes, will not see
what is so plainly written all about
them that he who runs may read.
The precocity that has been infused
into the American Merino not only
brings the matured animal into mark
ct at an age a year short of that re-
quired for perfecting its ancestry of q
few generations back, but it shows a
carcass that finds willing buyers in
every market, and ready consumers
in many a household once the seat OF
prejudice against Merino meat, thai
Uas moi dppmpd worthy the title nj