made various attempts to introduce Spanish sheep. In 1766, a number were imported and distributed among the people of different districts. But as the general opinion was, that Spanish sheep could only thrive in Spain, that the wool would degenerate if they did not travel from the plains to the mouŋtains, and from the mountains to the plains. And above all as the peasantry thought, that what they received without price could be of little worth, no attention was paid to keeping the race distinct, and of course little advantage resulted from the measure, except to a few enlightened farmers: But their experiments sufficiently proved the practicability of the project, and determined the government to make the attempt again, and to put the direction of the project into the hands of a distinguished agriculturalist.

APPLICATION was made to the king of Spain for permission to draw from his dominions a number of merinos, the name by which the fine woolled sheep are distinguished. He not only permitted this, but ordered that they should be chosen out of the finest flocks in the kingdom. In the year 1786, they arrived at Rambouillet, the national farm. Instead of giving away the increase as had before been done, they were annually sold, which of course put them into the hands of the richer and more intelligent farmers. At first they brought a very mode. rate price, but their superiority over the other sheep of the country, the great improvement in the wool

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that resulted from crossing the breed, were so trian» ifest, and the evidence that experience afforded of their supporting the change of climate and treatment without any sensible change in the quality of their wool, rendered the demand for them so great, that they have considerably advanced in price. In 1796, the average price was 80" franks, about 16 g the last sale (April, 1805,) the average price forea ewe was 250", that is about 50 %; rams brought from 60 to 120 s. This is the more remarkable, as by the last treaty between France and Spain, the former had a right to draw 5000 merifos from the flocks of the latter, 500 to be chosen annually for ten years. Skilful shepherds were sent to select them, and France now possesses above thirty thousand of these sheep by importation and by natural increase, and yet the price of the stock at Rambouillet has been regularly on the rise. The late minister of the interior, Mr. Chaptal, has a very fine flock consisting of 1200 sheep. As the sales at Rambouillet were over before I returned from Italy, I requested him to spare me five from his flock, to which he consented, provided I only took lambs and not more than two rams, for which I was to pay 1500 franks, about 300 g; this too was a very special favor. The shepherd I sent to choose them found the flock infected with the scab. I did not therefore think it prudent to take them, but left the money with a gentleman who has promised to bring them out next spring, either from that flock, or those at Rambouillet. I should mention

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another circumstance which proves that the wool does not grow worse in France when the stock from which they sprung was good. In April every year, there is a sale of lambs. of the preceding year, and of wool; the price of the latter was kept down by the artifices of the wool dealers, who pretended that it was inferior to Spanish wool. Some of the manufacturers, however, having for the two or three last years produced cloth at the exhibition, made of this wool equal to that from the finest Spanish wool, the price has advanced to a par with the wool brought from Spain.

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I SHOULD observe that the fine French cloths are finer and softer than those made in England, probably because very little of the finest Spanish wool goes to England, their import consisting of the second and third sorts with some still coarser The finest of the wool, to the amount of about three millions of pounds, is manufactured at the royal facturies in Spain, and the remainder goes to France and Italy. The quantity of wool drawn from Spain by France, was before the revolution about 4,000,000lb. but the manufactures having been ruined during the revolution, it was greatly diminished; what it is now I cannot declare. In the year 1786, England imported only three millions, but in the year 1796 the following is the state of the legal export from Spain, some is always smuggled into France and elsewhere.

Spain employs about 3 millions of pounds in her own manufactures. It may be proper here to ob sérve, that all the sheep of Spain are by no means merinos, but more of the stationary flocks are either what they call chorinos, which are a large hardy coarse woolled breed, or a mixture between them and the merinos, part of this latter wool is also exported.

As my object in this essay is to endeavor to im press upon my country the importance of propagating this breed of sheep, it may be proper to shew the value of this wool compared to that of other races, and particularly of that of England, and to remove some false ideas that have gone abroad rẹlative to them.

THE prices at Madrid for washed wool, in the year 1796 were as follows:

ANDERSON gives the value of wool in the Lon don market about the same period, which reduced to our money stands thus: for the best

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Ir appears from this, that the finest Spanish wool is not carried to England, since the price there was below the price at Madrid about the same period. Gov. Pownal in a letter to Arthur Young, 1788, gives the following as the average prices of British wool: Coarse 7 and an half pence, common 8 and an half pence, fine 11 pence the whole fleece; that is, reduced to our money about, coarse 14 cents, common 16, and fine 20; the south-down, which appears to me to have the staple of our best wool, 1s or 1s and 9 pence our money. This difference between the price of British and Spanish wool, is the more worthy our notice because it enables us to combat the prejudices which so generally prevail among us in favor of British sheep. We should then stop and examine candidly, how far those prejudices are well founded. Britain contains a great wariety of sheep, from the long woolled sheep, bred in marshy grounds, to the small fine woolled sheep fed on the Welsh mountains. The Durham breed, which is I believe the largest, weighs about