A HUNDRED YEARS' PROGRESS. 2 DO 



became well known iu tbat part of tbe country. Tbey are now extinct. 

 The Byfield breed, so popular for many years, originated in tbe same 

 way. China thus did a good deal for our agriculture fifty years ago and 

 more. 



Previous to tbe introduction and diffusion of tbe Woburn, tbe Byfield, 

 tbe Mackay, and more recently tbe Suffolk, tbe Berkshire, tbe Essex, 

 and other popular English breeds, the classes of swine that prevailed iu 

 the Eastern and Middle, and especially tbe Southern and Western States, 

 were coarse, large-boned, long-legged, and unprofitable creatures, better 

 calculated for subsoilers than for the pork-barrel, though the grass-fed 

 bog had done something to improve them as early as the time of the 

 importation of merino sheep. But it soon became settled tbat neither 

 the Eastern nor the Middle States could compete with tbe West in the 

 production of pork upon a large scale on account of tbe difference in 

 the cost of grain. Tbe raising and packing of pork has, therefore, gTown 

 up very naturally iu the Western States, and vast quantities are exported 

 from there every year. At tbe same time the facilities for carrying on 

 this business have been so greatly multiplied that the whole packing- 

 trade has been reduced to a system so perfect that it may almost be said 

 that no particle of tbe animal is now wasted, that all is economized, 

 either for food or in the form of some commercial product, as bristles, 

 lard, grease, steariue. soap, Prussian blue, &c., the aggregate of wbicb 

 collateral industries is scarcely less important than tbe preparation of 

 food itself. Tbe business involves a vast amount of capital, gives labor 

 to a vast number of men, and adds amazingly to the material prosperity 

 of tbe country. 



Sheep-husbandry in this country has been subject to great vicissitudes. 

 Sheep were imported by the early settlers, by tbe Virginia colony, as 

 early as 1G09, and they increased by 1G48 to three thousand. The Dutcb 

 West India Company introduced them about tbe year 1025, but they 

 proved to be too much of a temptation for dogs and wolves, for it is re- 

 corded that in 1643 there were but sixteen in that whole colony. They 

 were kept upon the islands in Boston Harbor as early as 1G33, and two 

 years after there were ninety-two in the vicinity of Portsmouth, New 

 Hampshire. It became the universal practice in the days of homespun for 

 the farmer to keep a number sufidcient to clothe his family. 



Tbe old "native"' sheep was a coarse, long-legged, and unprofitable 

 animal, and there was no improvement made in tbe breeding till 

 towards the close of the last century, when, in 1793, the first merinces, 

 or fine-wooled sheep, were imported by William Foster, of Boston. 

 They were wholly unappreciated, were given to a gentleman to keep, 

 and be, knowing nothing of their value, '• simply ate them,'' and a 

 few years after was buying tbe sam.e class of sheep at 81,000 per bead. 

 The embargo of 1808 induced many to turn their attention to fine-wool 

 sheep, and soon after very large numbers of merino sheep were im- 

 ported and distributed throughout tbe United States, and .our modern 

 sheep-husbandry, now grown up to its proportional importance, may be 

 said to date from these importations. 



The condition of the country gradually changed, and since tbe open- 

 ing of lines of communication to the West, tbe Eastern States have 

 found it hard to compete in tbe raising of fine wool with farmers who 

 could furnish us with the raw material for our manufactories at a cOst 

 of a cent a pound or less for transportation. The growing of sheep for 

 mutton and for wool has, therefore, been left to a great extent to the 

 Western States aud to Texas. We find, accordingly, that of the 

 28,477.951 reported bv tbe last census, Ohio had about 5,000,000, Call- 



