THE MERINO AT HOME.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13938, 25 June 1909, Page 3

THE MERINO AT HOME.

We were changing trains at Alfodor, where a spur line goes out along the, valley of the Tagus to Toledo (says a correspondent of the ."Sydney Morning Herald," in an article on a trip to Spain). We were thinking, not of new Australia, but of older things — of high-built, walled /.Toledo, with its relics of Roman .xnd; Goth and Moor and Spaniard; of tlie Tagus Valley, with its mule-driven irrigation works, which have remained unchanged since Moorish Spain a thousand years ago. A mixed train- lumbered in from the south, and pulled up almost unheeded. Whiff! It blew across the line, the subtle smell of assembled sheep. Whiff! lb was good. Spain fell out, and thoughts jumped away to boyhood days, burning days of singing shears in a eool> shady shed, days of " Wool away," and fleeces and "pieces" and "bellies," away to ilutsy, dry-throated days in choking yards and'tlie " Rpee-ek up!" to dusty, dry-throated dogs. The.se were sheep from the south, sheep from down Moreno way. We ciossed the line, and saw truck-loads of the parent stock of over 80,000,000 Australian moneyspinners. They were bound for six trucks' of them —lean, lanky lambs. Like all Spanish mutton; they were 'poor; at Homebush •Jiey would not have been counted good stoics. The Spanish cook soaks you with oil, but you never get a glimpse of fat. We look with much interest at these skinny lambs. Age for age, they would not be more than twothirds the size of the lovely Australian merino. They are small in the bone, long of leg, and sparse of fleece. Altogether they ;re a poor, emaciated lot. They remind one of the direct descendants . of Captain Ma.earthur'.s original sheep, which came from King George Ill's. Spanish flock at Kew. and which were shown at Sydney a few years ago. ?hc scientific breeder lias passed them by, and left them where they were a century ago. They show us how far we have travelled in the improvement of the merino.