224 RURAL MICIIIOAN 



during this period, the Oxford Downs are said to 

 have been imported in about the year 1883. It is 

 stated by one breeder of this type that up to 1887, 

 "there were less than half a dozen flocks of pure- 

 bred Oxfords in Michigan."^ The popularity of the 

 breed seems to have increased. The breeders, cen- 

 tering in Genesee County, organized an association, 

 and by 1899, the estimated number of pure-bred Ox- 

 fords in the State is placed at 2,500.^ The lowest 

 average yield of wool to a head up to that date is 

 given at 8.5 pounds. One flock is credited with an 

 average of 11.5 pounds a head, while this record 

 had been exceeded in some instances, it is claimed. 

 Other breeds of sheep in the State during the period 

 under review included the American, French and 

 Delaine Merinos, Shropshire, Hampshire, Southdown, 

 Cotswold, Lincoln, Leicester and Horned Dorset. In 

 popularity the Shropshire is reported as leading, and 

 although at that time the Merinos are said to have 

 composed the chief flocks of the State, they were 

 giving place to the Shropshire breed. ^ 



Michigan had 2,224,000 head of sheep on January 

 1, 1920, valued at $11.80 a head, with an aggregate 

 farm value of $2G,243,000. In 1919, these sheep 

 produced 9,554,000 pounds of wool, weighing on an 

 average 7.4 pounds. The total number of fleeces 

 was 1,291,000.* Flocks of sheep on Michigan farms 



^"Rept. Mich. Bd. Agr.," 1899, 398. 

 '■"fbid., 400. 

 ^Ibid., 1892, 365. 



* "Yearbook," U. 8. Dept. Agr., 1919, 669-672. The re- 

 turns of the Fourteentli U. S. Census show that there were 



