This article would be too lengthy if I were to give a full detail of my flock of sheep and their annual care; suffice it to say, that to be prepared for wintering, we lay in a proper stock of the finer grasses, cut in good season, and cured in the cock, in a greenish tender state. We have stationary boxes prepared under cover, and movable ones in the yards sufficient for feeding all the flocks in winter; we economise in shed room by constructing them with two stories or apartments for feeding under the same roof, allowing one flock to be fed in the story above the other; the flock below suffer no inconvenience from the urine above, when the floor between them is well littered at the commencement of winter; each flock can be shut in to protect them from storms, or for other convenient purposes.

The best kind of feeding boxes that I have seen, are constructed of plank of about one foot in width, upon the upper edge of this plank, one and one fourth inch holes are bored eight inches from centre to centre, rounds or standards about 18 inches long are set in each hole, these are secured at the top by entering a cap from one to two inches thick, and four inches wide; when constructed in this manner, sheep never jump into them, nor can the stronger and more resolute crowd out the weaker.

One foddering of the poorest hay is selected each week, and brined by dissolving a pint and a half of salt in two gallons of water, and sprinkled upon the hay sufficient for a flock of sixty; this they devour greedily, and may be fed in the fairest days.

In summer we cast the salt before them on the ground, every week, which is preferable to keeping a supply before them, it is all times in troughs; without some attention every week, they become less tractable and more timid, forgetting the voice of the shepherd. In winter we feed our main flocks only twice each day, those that are hearty do as well when fed about one hour after sunrise, and at three o'clock in the afternoon.

There is great saving in time and hay, to feed them in boxes or racks sheltered from storms, and the cold; the extra growth of the fleece, and the saving of time and hay including other advantages, by shelter will pay for the sheds in two years; a shed 18 by 26 feet with 13 foot ports, will make room for two flocks of sixty in each including the space occupied for the feeding boxes. These sheds should be lighted and ventilated by slide windows upon each side.

I build some of these sheep barns of sufficient size, to contain a bay in one end; the shed which you see in perspective is of this class, 25 by 34 feet, twelve feet at one end is occupied for storing hay; the door represented at a, is the pitching hole. The basement is constructed with double doors of sufficient width, for backing in a cart or sled, to accommodate in loading the manure from below and above, by raising a plank in the floor. Some of these sheds are erected near our hay barns, where we can take the advantage of the rising ground for stock to enter the upper story, at others, the ground is raised at one end, as seen in the accompanying draft.

I am decidedly opposed to stowing hay. as many do, in the lofts over cattle or sheep, unless a tight floor be laid over head. The effluvia and steam that arises from the animals and manure below, impregnates the hay above, and stock eat it with reluctance; hay keeps fresh and the sweetest in the solid mow.

It is of great importance that sheep walks should be dry at all seasons of the year, wet yards are very weakening and injurious.

Our weakest sheep and stock bucks, are fed a little grain through the winter, the main flock get no grain, except the breeding ones, these a few weeks previous to lambing, are fed corn or oats, or what is better, a mixture of carrots and sugar beets cut up and fed with two quarts of oil meal, to half a bushel of roots to each flock. The main portion of the lambs drop in May; but we allow some choice ewes to yean them one month earlier..

I have a few merino ewes which I imported from Lord Western's flock in 1836. In 1808, the Cortes of Spain tendered a present to the king (George III,) of five hundred ewes, to distribute among his subjects, and his lordship selected forty ewes out of the whole flock.

These Lord Western bred with the view of enlarging the carcass for mutton, as well as improving the wool; the quality of the mutton is said to be superior; weathers have dressed over 130 pounds, and their wool being highly valuable for long fine combing purposes.

I have about 60 ewes that are now dropping their lambs, got by the "French merinos," imported by John A. Taintor; these are the largest merinos I ever saw, and they are the most perfect model of a sheep; a flock of them may average in good condition, 200 pounds each. The three bucks that were with my ewes, are very fine wool, and it stands very thick upon the pelt; it is judged that the three will shear 45 pounds of cleansed wool at 15 months old. Half bloods will be enlarged in size, and must make a valuable cross upon the common sheep of our country.

I have over 400 pure blood merino ewes of one year old and upwards. For six years my stock buck "Fortune," has tupped about 200 each year; stock of his get have been widely disseminated throughout the Union. These sheep are of good symetry, very gentle and docile, of robust constitution, the wool is of good quality, and stands very thick all over the pelt, and are noted for shearing heavy fleeces.

Weybridge, Vt. April 10, 1848.

Very respectfully,

S. W. JEWETT.

MERINO SHEEP.*

BY MR. ANCRAM, of Michigan.

The following paper, though not strictly practical, will perhaps be read with interest, as is everything relative to this valuable race of sheep. It is a condensed translation from the French, in part, with my own researches and remarks.

Of the origin of the Spanish Merinos, and of the origin of the Rambouillet sheep, under the care of the French Government.

Some say that this race are natives of Spain, others that they came from Africa. Some even pretend to seek their origin in England; however this type is no where to be found in that country.

Martial was a Spaniard; he lived in the first age of our era, and in his time the wool of the Boetica and Cantabria was very much esteemed at Rome. He says: "On the left bank of the Guadiana, of which Emerita Augusta was the capital, now Merida, was part of the Botica, and on the other part Julia Brega, capital of Cantabria in the Aquilar del Campo, towards the sources of the Ebro."

If we consider that these same places are still the centre of the habitation of the fine race of Leoneses; that a part of the Botica answers to that of Estremadura, where these flocks pass their winter, and that the Cantabria comprises the extremities of Leon and Old Castile, where they sojourn in summer, we find sufficient reason in all this to assign to this race no other country as the region where they originated, than where we find them at this day.

An importation of sheep has been cited by Columella from Africa, and some thought to find there the origin of the Merinos; but neither history nor tradition has transmitted anything of the pre-eminence of the African sheep over those of other countries; besides Columella was contemporary with Martial, and if the amelioration of the flocks were the effect of an African cross on the Spanish • This article, by Mr. Ancram, of Michigan, was communicated to the American Institute by Daniel Mallory, Esq., of New-York.

sheep, it could not have extended itself so rapidly as to have reached the Botica (Columella lived at Cadex,) to the mountains of the Cantabria, and attract in so short a space of time the attention of the Romans.

The Cantabria had then little or no relation with the other provinces; the Cantabrians were never entirely subdued. Horace says; "Cantaber sera domitus catena." The regions they inhabited were at a great distance from the Botica. It must therefore be admitted that the importation spoken of by Columella was only an experiment tried at the southern extremity of Spain, and could not immediately extend its influence to the northern parts of Spain, and even to the Pyrenees. If you go back to more ancient times, you find the coast of the peninsula and some of the provinces of the interior occupied by the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians, people more of a trading than a pastoral character.

To the Carthaginians succeeded the Romans; it is known that the policy of these conquerors was to take from those they conquered what was precious and useful, rather than to add to the means of their prosperity. If the Romans had fixed their regards and attention to the amelioration of the flocks, if in the midst of their triumphs they had stopped to remark the immense benefits of this branch of industry, and the great wealth it produces to individuals and nations, would they not rather have enriched Italy with this blessing rather than the extremity of the Botica and the country of Cantabria.

It is in vain we search in the different ages at what period the pure race of Merinos producing fine wool was first introduced into Spain, and the place from whence they were imported. It is in vain that we interrogate history, tradition, travels and voyages to learn with certainty the original type of the pure race of Merinos. It is in vain that we search for them in any other country than Spain.

Some have thought that the Khorassan was the native country of this precious race, and that its introduction into Spain was due to the Arabs; but as we see above, the wool of the Botica and Cantabria were in estimation long time before Spain was subject to the sect of Mahomet, however, a fact which has been preserved in history destroys all the probability of this supposition. We learn that in the ninth era, the Caliphs of Persia and Africa sent to Charle