340 Percy Wells Bidwell 



refuse. For a few months before slaughtering they were fed on 

 Indian corn. They thrived under this treatment and seem to have 

 been the most successfully developed animals on the farm. Harriott 

 wrote of the swine which he saw in Rhode Island: "Hogs they have 

 as good and as large as can be bred in any part of the globe. "^ In 

 the Newport market he observed several weighing about 600 lbs. 

 each, and on inquiry was informed that such weight was not unusual. 

 The average size in other regions was, however, probably consider- 

 ably under this figure. - 



Sheep of the Common Breed. 



The flock of 20 or 25 sheep regularly found on every farm was a 

 characteristic feature of the self-sufficient agriculture. So vitally 

 important were they as the source of supply of wooP that in spite 

 of the constant discouragements of colonial days,'* the sheep had 

 increased steadily in numbers in proportion to the growth of popula- 

 tion. No feature of the farm economy shows more clearly than the 

 management of sheep the neglect and want of progress which the 

 lack of a market brought about; and on the other hand, no depart- 

 ment of the agricultural industry responded more promptly in im- 

 provement when once the market was supplied. Up to 1800 no 

 attempts had been made to improve the breed of sheep. They had, 

 probably, in common with the cows and horses, degenerated since 

 their introduction by the first settlers. They were long-legged, 

 narrow in the breast and back, and slow in arriving at maturity. 

 When fully grown, they yielded only 40 or 45 pounds of mutton, 

 and about three or three and one-half pounds of coarse wool at each 

 shearing.^ 



' Struggles through Life. II. 39. 



2 In the papers of the Mass. Agric. Soc, II. 1807, 38-39, the weights given 

 are from 250 to 400 lbs. See also Belknap, History of New Hampshire, III. 245. 



' The value of the sheep as meat producers seems to have been quite subsidiary. 

 This was due in large part to a prejudice among the farmers against mutton as 

 an article of diet. See U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. Special Report on the His- 

 tory and Present Condition of the Sheep Industry of the United States. Pre- 

 pared under the direction of Dr. D. E. Salmon. Washington. 1892. 52 Cong. 

 2 Sess. Misc. Doc. No. 105, p. 74. 



■• Among these discouragements were the ravages of wolves and later of dogs. 

 It was the desire to escape the former danger which first led to the pasturage of 

 sheep on the islands in Boston Harbor and later on the larger islands of Nan- 

 tucket and Martha's Vineyard. The flocks on these islands had in 1810 increased 

 to very considerable size (supra p. 290 and note), furnishing a surplus of wool for 

 export. See Wright, C. W., Wool Growing and the Tariff. Harvard Univer- 

 sity Economic Studies. Vol. V. Cambridge. 1910. pp. 2 ff. 



» See Sheep Industry in U. S.. p. 51; Mass. Agric. Soc. Papers, II. 1807, 38. 



