EARLY MANHOOD IN THE MIDDLE WEST 145 



Spanish Merinos for two dollars a pound and that 

 during the war of 1812 wool rose to two-fifty per 

 pound. At that time the best of imported rams 

 sold for a thousand dollars apiece and a few ewes 

 were sold for like sums. But in 1815 the Peace of 

 Ghent was concluded and within a year thereafter 

 full-blooded Merinos were sold as low as one dol- 

 lar per head. 



To illustrate some of the uncertainties that beset 

 sheep-raising at this period I jot down the experi- 

 ence of one of my neighbors. He had a flock of 

 nice, " straight" two-year-old ewes, for which he 

 was offered twenty-five dollars a head. But they 

 had been in a field where it was possible they might 

 have picked up the germs of footrot; and as he did 

 not like to face possible damages for selling in- 

 fected animals and did not think it wise to reveal 

 the fact that the flock had grazed on pasture which 

 had once been contaminated, he declined to sell. 

 The sheep remained sound so far as footrot was 

 concerned but unfortunately they later contracted 

 the scab a skin disease due to a minute insect, 

 the icarus and two years after he received this 

 offer, most of this flock of ewes had to be 

 slaughtered, their pelts removed and the carcasses 

 fed to swine. They could have been cured by a 



