216 State Board of AoRicTJi/ruRE, &c. 



head, hut was inferior in fineness, evenness and style, and 

 was quite coarse on the thigh and neck folds, the yolk thick 

 and of i\ 2:olden color.." 



" Tlie Atwood sheep in 1840 were larger than the Pau- 

 lar, and, like thcni, had heavy dewlaps and some neck folds 

 and wrinkles. Their wool was shorter, finer and evener, 

 well crimped, brilliant, thick and very dark externally. The 

 inside yolk was abundant and generally colorless.'" 



There were a few other small Merino flocks scattered 

 through the States, but as they have failed up to this time 

 to make any note of themselves, and ])robably have all been 

 merged in either the Paular or Atwood families or both, 

 ere this, we will pass them by with the remark that the 

 model ewe of Mr Francis Eotch, of Louisville, New York, 

 an eminent sheep and cattle breeder of 184<», from his flock 

 of thirty ewes, " selected from the best New England 

 flocks,*" as illustrated in the Practical Shepherd, shows a 

 plain, bare faced, l)are legged ewe, absolutely without dew- 

 lap or folds of any kind, and a sheep unworthy of a place 

 in a fourth rate flock of culls of the present day. 



The French sheep were represented by a small importa- 

 tion by Mr. D. C. Collins, of Hartford, Connecticut, who, 

 seeing the government flock at Ilaml)ouilk'tt, while travel- 

 ling in France, and appreciating the great deterioration of 

 the sheep of America, and the excellence of these, conceived 

 the idea of breeding rams to restore the sheep of his own 

 country to their former excellence. 



In fact the desire was cosmopolitan to return to the old 

 fasliioned Merino or something better in the same line. 



i. 



