THE SPANISH MERINO.
A MERINO RAM.
The Spanish sheep, in different countries, has, either directly or indirectly, effected a complete revolution in the character of the fleece. The race is unquestionably one of the most ancient extant. The early writers on agriculture and the veterinary art describe various breeds of sheep as existing in Spain, of different colors—black, red, and tawny. The black sheep yielded a fine fleece, the finest of that color which was then known; but the red fleece of Bætica—a considerable part of the Spanish coast on the Mediterranean, comprising the modern Spanish provinces of Gaen, Cordova, Seville, Andalusia, and Granada, which was early colonized by the enterprising Greeks—was, according to Pliny, of still superior quality, and “had no fellow.”
These sheep were probably imported from Italy, and of the Tarentine breed, which had gradually spread from the coast of Syria, and of the Black Sea, and had then reached the western extremity of Europe. Many of them mingled with and improved the native breeds of Spain, while others continued to exist as a distinct race, and, meeting with a climate and an herbage suited to them, retained their original character and value, and were the progenitors of the Merinos of the present day. Columella, a colonist from Italy, and uncle of the writer of an excellent work on agriculture, introduced more of the Tarentine sheep into Bætica, where he resided in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, in the year 41, and otherwise improved on the native breed; for, struck with the beauty of some African rams which had been brought to Rome to be exhibited at the public games, he purchased them, and conveyed them to his farm in Spain, whence, probably, originated the better varieties of the long-woolled breeds of that country.
Before his time, however, Spain possessed a valuable breed; since Strabo, who flourished under Tiberius, speaking of the beautiful woollen cloths that were worn by the Romans, says that the wool was brought from Truditania, in Spain.
The limited region of Italy—overrun, as it repeatedly was, by hordes of barbarians during and after the times of the latest emperors—soon lost her pampered flocks; while the extended regions of Spain—intersected in every direction by almost impassable mountains—could maintain their more hardy race, in defiance of revolution or change.
To what extent the improvements which have been noticed were carried is unknown; but as Spain was at that time highly civilized, and as agriculture was the favorite pursuit of the greater part of the colonists that spread over the vast territory, which then acknowledged the Roman power, it is highly probable that Columella’s experiments laid the foundation for a general improvement in the Spanish sheep—an improvement, moreover, which was not lost, nor even materially impaired, during the darker ages that succeeded.
The Merino race possess inbred qualities to an extent surpassed by no others. They have been improved in the general weight and evenness of their fleece, as in the celebrated flock of Rambouillet; in the uniformity and excessive fineness of the fibre, as in the Saxons; and in their form and feeding qualities, in various countries; but there has never yet been deterioration, either in quantity or quality of fleece or carcass, wherever they have been transported, if supplied with suitable food and attention. Most sheep annually shed their wool if unclipped; while the Merino retains its fleece, sometimes for five years, when allowed to remain unshorn.
Conclusive evidence is thus afforded of continued breeding among themselves, by which the very constitution of the wool-producing organs beneath the skin have become permanently established; and this property is transmitted to a great extent, even among the crosses, thus marking the Merino as an ancient and peculiar race.
The remains of the ancient varieties of color, also, as noticed by Pliny, Solinus, and Columella, may still be discovered in the modern Merino. The plain and indeed the only reason that can be assigned for the union of black and gray faces with white bodies, in the same breed, is the frequent intermixture of black and white sheep, until the white prevails in the fleece, and the black is confined to the face and legs. It is still apt to break out occasionally in the individual, unless it is fixed and concentrated in the face and legs, by repeated crosses and a careful selection; and, on the contrary, in the Merino South-Down the black may be reduced by a few crosses to small spots about the legs, while the Merino hue overspreads the countenance. This hue—variously described as a velvet, a buff, a fawn, or a satin-colored countenance, but in which a red tinge not infrequently predominates, still indicates the original colors of the indigenous breeds of Spain; and the black wool, for which Spain was formerly so much distinguished, is still inclined to break out occasionally in the legs and ears of the Merino. In some flocks half the ear is invariably brown, and a coarse black hair is often discernible in the finest pile.
A SPANISH SHEEP DOG.
The conquest, in the eighth century, by the Moors of those fine provinces in the south of Spain, so far from checking, served rather to encourage the production of fine wool. The conquerors were not only enterprising, but highly skilled in the useful arts, and carried on extensive manufactories of fine woollen goods, which they exported to different countries. The luxury of the Moorish sovereigns has been the theme of many writers; and in the thirteenth century, when the woollen manufacture flourished in but few places, there were found in Seville no less than sixteen thousand looms. A century later, Barcelona, Perpignan, and Tortosa were celebrated for the fineness of their cloths, which became staple articles of trade throughout the greater part of Europe, as well as on the coast of Africa.
After the expulsion of the Moors, in the fifteenth century, by Ferdinand and Isabella, the woollen manufacture languished, and was, in a great degree, lost to Spain, owing to the rigorous banishment of nearly one million industrious Moors, most of whom were weavers. As a consequence, the sixteen thousand looms of Seville dwindled down to sixty. The Spanish government perceived its fatal mistake too late, and subsequent efforts to gain its lost vantage-ground in respect to this manufacture proved fruitless. During all that time, however, the Spanish sheep appear to have withstood the baneful influence of almost total neglect; and although the Merino flocks and Merino wool have improved under the more careful management of other countries, the world is originally indebted to Spain for the most valuable material in the manufacture of cloth.
The perpetuation of the Merino sheep in all its purity, amid the convulsions which changed the entire political framework of Spain and destroyed every other national improvement, strikingly illustrates the primary determining power of blood or breeding, as well as the agency of soil and climate—possibly too much underrated in modern times.
These Spanish sheep are divided into two classes: the stationary, or those that remain during the whole of the year on a certain farm, or in a certain district, there being a sufficient provision for them in winter and in summer; and the migratory, or those which wander some hundreds of miles twice in the year, in quest of pasturage. The principal breed of stationary sheep consists of true Merinos; but the breeds most sought for, and with which so many countries have been enriched, are the Merinos of the migratory description, which pass the summer in the mountains of the north, and the winter on the plains toward the south of Spain.
The first impression made by the Merino sheep on one unacquainted with its value would be unfavorable. The wool lying closer and thicker over the body than in most other breeds, and being abundant in yolk—or a peculiar secretion from the glands of the skin, which nourishes the wool and causes it to mat closely together—is covered with a dirty crust, often full of cracks. The legs are long, yet small in the bone; the breast and the back are narrow, and the sides somewhat flat; the fore-shoulders and bosoms are heavy, and too much of their weight is carried on the coarser parts. The horns of the male are comparatively large, curved, and with more or less of a spiral form; the head is large, but the forehead rather low. A few of the females are horned; but, generally speaking, they are without horns. Both male and female have a peculiar coarse and unsightly growth of hair on the forehead and cheeks, which the careful shepherd cuts away before the shearing-time; the other part of the face has a pleasing and characteristic velvet appearance. Under the throat there is a singular looseness of skin, which gives them a remarkable appearance of throatiness, or hollowness in the neck. The pile or hair, when pressed upon, is hard and unyielding, owing to the thickness into which it grows on the pelf, and the abundance of the yolk, retaining all the dirt and gravel which falls upon it; but, upon examination, the fibre exceeds, in fineness and in the number of serrations and curves, that which any other sheep in the world produces. The average weight of the fleece in Spain is eight pounds from the ram, and five from the ewe. The staple differs in length in different provinces. When fatted, these sheep will weigh from twelve to sixteen pounds per quarter.
The excellence of the Merinos consist in the unexampled fineness and felting property of their wool, and in the weight of it yielded by each individual sheep; the closeness of that wool, and the luxuriance of the yolk, which enable them to support extremes of cold and wet quite as well as any other breed; the readiness with which they adapt themselves to every change of climate, retaining, with common care, all their fineness of wool, and thriving under a burning tropical sun, and in the frozen regions of the north; an appetite which renders them apparently satisfied with the coarsest food; a quietness and patience into whatever pasture they are turned; and a gentleness and tractableness not excelled in any other breed.
Their defects—partly attributable to the breed, but more to the improper mode of treatment to which they are occasionally subjected—are, their unthrifty and unprofitable form; a tendency to abortion, or barrenness; a difficulty of yeaning, or giving birth to their young; a paucity of milk; and a too frequent neglect of their lambs. They are likewise said, notwithstanding the fineness of their wool, and the beautiful red color of the skin when the fleece is parted, to be more subject to cutaneous affections than most other breeds. Man, however, is far more responsible for this than Nature. Every thing was sacrificed in Spain to fineness and quantity of wool. These were supposed to be connected with equality of temperature, or, at least, with freedom from exposure to cold; and, therefore, twice in the year, a journey of four hundred miles was undertaken, at the rate of eighty or a hundred miles per week—the spring journey commencing when the lambs were scarcely four months old. It is difficult to say in what way the wool of the migratory sheep was, or could be, benefited by these periodical journeys. Although among them is found the finest and most valuable wool in Spain, yet the stationary sheep, in certain provinces—Segovia, Leon, and Estremadura—are more valuable than the migratory flocks of others. Moreover, the fleece of some of the German Merinos—which do not travel at all, and are housed all the winter—greatly exceeds that obtained from the best migratory breed—the Leonese—in fineness and felting property; and the wool of the migratory sheep has been, comparatively speaking, driven out of the market by that from sheep which never travel. With respect to the carcass, these harassing journeys, occupying one-quarter of the year, tend to destroy all possibility of fattening, or any tendency toward it, and the form and the constitution of the flock are deteriorated, and the lives of many sacrificed.
The first importation of Merinos into the United States took place in 1801; a banker of Paris, Mr. Delessert, having shipped four, of which but one arrived in safety at his farm near Kingston, in New York; the others perished on the passage. The same year, Mr. Seth Adams, of Massachusetts, imported a pair from France. In 1802, Chancellor Livingston, then American Minister at the court of Versailles, sent two choice pairs from the Rambouillet flock—which was started, in 1786, by placing four hundred ewes and rams, selected from the choicest Spanish flocks, on the royal farm of that name, in France—to Claremont, his country-seat, on the Hudson river. In the latter part of the same year, Colonel Humphreys, American Minister to Spain, shipped two hundred, on his departure from that country. The largest importations, however, were made through Hon. William Jarvis, of Vermont, then American Consul at Lisbon, Portugal, in 1809, 1810, and 1811, who succeeded in obtaining the choicest sheep of that country. Various subsequent importations took place, which need not be particularized.
The cessation of all commercial intercourse with England, in 1808 and 1809, growing out of difficulties with that country, directed attention, in an especial manner, toward manufacturing and wool-growing. The Merino, consequently, rose into importance, and so great was the interest aroused, that from a thousand to fourteen hundred dollars a head was paid for them. Some of the later importations, unfortunately, arrived in the worst condition, bringing with them those scourges of the sheep family, the scab and the foot-rot; which evils, together with increased supply, soon brought them down to less than a twentieth part of their former price. When, however, it was established, by actual experiment, that their wool did not deteriorate in this country, as had been feared by many, and that they became readily acclimated, they again rose into favor. The prostration of the manufacturing interests of the country, which ensued soon afterwards, rendered the Merino of comparatively little value, and ruined many who had purchased them at their previous high prices. Since that period, the valuation of the sheep which bear the particular wool has, as a matter of course, kept pace with the fluctuations in the price of the wool.
The term Merino, it must be remembered, is but the general appellation of a breed, comprising several varieties, presenting essential points of difference in size, form, quality and quantity of wool. These families have generally been merged, by interbreeding, in the United States and other countries which have received the race from Spain. Purity of Merino blood, and actual excellence in the individual and its ancestors, form the only standard in selecting sheep of this breed. Families have, indeed, sprung up in this country, exhibiting wider points of difference than did those of Spain. This is owing, in some cases, doubtless, to particular causes of breeding; but more often, probably, to concealed or forgotten infusions of other blood. The question, which has been at times raised, whether there are any Merinos in the United States, descendants of the early importations, of unquestionable purity of blood, has been conclusively settled in the affirmative.
The minor distinctions among the various families into which, as has already been intimated, the American Merino has diverged, are numerous, but may all, perhaps, be classed under three general heads.
The first is a large, short-legged, strong, exceedingly hardy sheep, carrying a heavy fleece, ranging from medium to fine, free from hair in properly bred flocks; somewhat inclined to throatiness, but not so much so as the Rambouillets; bred to exhibit external concrete gum in some flocks, but not commonly so; their wool rather long on back and belly, and exceedingly dense; wool whiter within than the Rambouillets; skin the same rich rose-color. Sheep of this class are larger and stronger than those originally imported, carry much heavier fleeces, and in well-selected flocks, or individuals, the fleece is of a decidedly better quality.
The second class embraces smaller animals than the preceding; less hardy; wool, as a general thing, finer, and covered with a black, pitchy gum on its extremities; fleece about one-fourth lighter than in the former class.
OUT AT PASTURE.
The third class, bred at the South, mostly, includes animals still smaller and less hardy, and carrying still finer and lighter fleeces. The fleece is destitute of external gum. The sheep and wool have a close resemblance to the Saxon; and, if not actually mixed with that blood, they have been formed into a similar variety, by a similar course of breeding.
The mutton of the Merino, notwithstanding the prejudices existing on the subject, is short-grained, and of good flavor, when killed at a proper age, and weighs from ten to fourteen pounds to the quarter. It is remarkable for its longevity, retaining its teeth, and continuing to breed two or three years longer than the common sheep, and at least half a dozen years longer than the improved English breeds. It should, however, be remarked, in this connection, that it is correspondingly slow in arriving at maturity, as it does not attain its full growth before three years of age; and the ewes, in the best managed flocks, are rarely permitted to breed before they reach that age.
The Merino is a far better breeder than any other fine-woolled sheep, and its lambs, when newly dropped, are claimed to be hardier than the Bakewell, and equally so with the high-bred South-Down. The ewe, as has been intimated, is not so good a nurse, and will not usually do full justice to more than one lamb. Eighty or ninety per cent. is about the ordinary number of lambs reared, though it often reaches one hundred per cent., in carefully managed or small flocks.
Allusion has heretofore been made to the cross between the Merino and the native sheep. On the introduction of the Saxon family of the Merinos, they were universally engrafted on the parent stock, and the cross was continued until the Spanish blood was nearly bred out. When the admixture took place with judiciously selected Saxons, the results were not unfavorable for certain purposes. These instances of judicious crossing were, unfortunately, rare. Fineness of wool was made the only tests of excellence, no matter how scanty its quantity, or how diminutive or miserable the carcass. The consequence was, as might be supposed, the ruin of most of the Merino flocks.