Mkrino SiiKK.p Im)usti;y. - "211 



" Finally came the tiftli stage which had for its object to 

 produce not only the finest and softest wool, but in i>;rcat 

 quantities." And for aught I know the Prussians have 

 since added in the sixth stage, what their sheep, when last 

 heard from, lacked to be a practically good sheep for the 

 American market, (when our upper classes sustain their 

 manufacturers in wanting fine wool,) to wit : form, and an 

 animal that will stand a moderate degree of exposure with- 

 out vanishing like the mori.ing dew. 



The first importation of sheep of any importance into tlie 

 United States were French, in 1802, by Chancellor Livings- 

 ton. American Minister to France. They bore but little 

 resemblance to the modern French, and were probably gen- 

 uine Spanish Merinos before changed in form and constitu- 

 tion by the French system of breeding and keep. So suc- 

 cessful was Mr. Livingston that he sold ram lambs of liis 

 own breeding, in 1810, for one thousand dollars each, and 

 sheared from a full blooded ewe the enormous fleece, for 

 tliose days, of eight pounds and ten ounces, and from a 

 yearling ram of his own breeding, eleven pounds and nine 

 ounces of wool in tiie grease, nearly three pounds more than 

 from the heaviest shearing of his imported stock. 



Later in the year 1802 Colonel Humphrey, American 

 Minister to Spain, brought home to this country twenty-one 

 rains and seventy ewes, purchased for him in the cabanas oi 

 Le(mesa Trauslm montes of Spain, supposed to be Lifanta- 

 does. These cabanas, or families, such as Infantado, Pau- 

 lar, Gaudaloupe, I^igrette, Escurial, Aiguerras, Monterco, 

 Arriza, etc., were snl)divisions of the choice " Ti'aushu mon- 

 ies.'" or travelling sheep of Estramadui-a, New Castile and 



