Sheep Breeders' Association. 349 



the wool yielded, had increased nearly three times in weight ; and it, 

 was the average farmer who had produced these results, the 

 farmer who pays no attention to improvement. If we take those 

 examples which apply to the men who have actually and intelli- 

 gently engaged in improving the Merino sheep, we find that in tlie 

 beginning, around 1800 to 1810, there were thousands of Merino 

 sheep imported into this country that sheared an average of 31/2 

 to 4 pounds of wool per head. Now, on that foundation, the brf ?d- 

 ers of this country undertook to produce a sheep that would yield 

 a large fleece of fine wool of excellent quality. In a v«r,ry few 

 years, sheep were produced that averaged 10 pounds of wool, and 

 we have a record of a single sheep that prcducd in those early 

 years (1830-35) as much as 25 pounds, and this fleece was gradu- 

 ally increased to 30 and 35 pounds, and finally a single individual 

 was produced that sheared 44 pounds and 9 ounces of wool. There 

 have been reports of sheep that have produced over 50 pounds of 

 wool; but this 44 pounds record is authentic and is stamped with 

 the approval of the official registry book of the association. The 

 Vermont Merino register gives the average weight of fleece of 

 36 rams as 31 pounds; 54 ewes averaged 19.11 pounds. 



The beginning of the sheep industry in this country is to be 

 found around the date 1800, and in considering the development 

 of the sheep business in this country, we look first to the American 

 Merino, because this country became famous for its Merino sheep. 

 These sheep were imported from Spain. The first sheep, so far 

 as I know, were imported in 1793 by William Foster who presented 

 a ram and two ewes to a friend of his, and this friend, not realiz- 

 ing the value of these particular individuals, had them killed and 

 ate them. I regret to say that this same man later had to pay 

 one thousand dollars for a ram not so good as the one he killed and 

 ate. A few years after this, in 1801, we have the next record of 

 an importation of sheep into this country, and in that year Seth 

 Adams of Massachusetts imported a few sheep. In 1807, Ander- 

 son of Ohio took some sheep into Ohio, which were the first intro- 

 duced into that state. In 1802, Humphreys, who was afterward 

 to become famous in Merino sheep history, imported one ram 

 and 17 ewes from Spain. For a long time, the government of 

 Spain placed an embargo on the exportation of sheep from that 

 country which made it very difficult to secure sheep for this coun- 

 try; but small numbers of sheep were sent out by Col. Humphreys 

 and Mr. M. Jarvis, then consuls of the United States; these men 

 were able to secure some modifications of the government rules 



