50 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



been true in other parts of the world, but for the purposes of 

 this talk we will confine ourselves right down to the United 

 States. What was the condition of the sheep industry, Air. 

 President, when you were a boy? I will venture to say that 

 there were not in your boyhood days to exceed five thousand 

 sheep in the whole United States that were not merinos or 

 of merino grade. At the outbreak of the Civil War there 

 came a demand for a class of wool that had not existed to any 

 extent in this country before. It was needed for the purpose 

 of making army blankets for the soldiers. There came a de- 

 mand for some of the coarser wools. The coarser wools went 

 up in price. There was a large increase in the demand even 

 for the gray merino wool. The price went up steadily, and 

 then there began what we will call a revolution of the sheep 

 industry of this country, beginning as it did with the outbreak 

 of the Civil War. At that time there came a tremendous de- 

 mand for the coarser classes of wool, and with that large 

 demand a great increase in the price of wool, but at the close 

 of the war when that demand ceased, of course, the coarser 

 wools began to go back. There was no demand for them. 

 Something else took place and that something else was this. 

 The high price of wool stimulated the breeding of the merino 

 sheep as never before. I feel proud to say, and proud of the 

 American m.erino breeders who today produce sheep that 

 stand pre-eminent as the best wool sheep above any other 

 country on earth, but in the race to produce that American 

 merino sheep our breeders did something that brought about 

 a change in the market. It was something that all of us are 

 apt to do when we get a little too enthusiastic. We sometim.es 

 overdo. I know I do when I am on the platform. I sometimes 

 go a little too far. I hope I shall not in this. I do not want 

 to trample on any one's toes in what I am about to say. But 

 in the stimulus of breeding these wool sheep shortly after the 

 close of the v.-ar. or about 1864 or 1865, and from that on, as 

 the result of the stimulus to this breeding, merino sheep in- 

 stead of producing about five or six pounds of wool per 

 fleece the breeders actually increased the wool producing 

 power of the sheep very materially. They began to pro- 

 duce heavier fleeces, which brought them into prominence. 

 Here is where a mistake was made by New York and 

 Vermont breeders, and perhaps also by Connecticut breed- 



