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. THE SAXON MERINO. The indigenous breed of sheep in Saxony resembled that of the neighboring states, and consisted of two distinct Varieties--one bearing a wool of some value, and the other yielding a fleece applicable only to the coarsest manufactures. At the close of the seven years war, Augustus Frederic, the Elector of Saxony, imported one hundred rams and two hundred ewes from the most improved Spanish flocks, and placed a part of them on one of his own farms, in the neighborhood of Dresden, which he kept unmixed, as he desired to ascertain how far the pure Spanish breed could be naturalized in that country The other part of the flock was distributed on other farms, and devoted to the improvement of the Saxon sheep.