CHAPTER XVIII. 

 BREEDING FOR THE MARKET. 



In colonial times, sheep were all of the coarse-wooled type, 

 brought with the settlers from England and Holland. They 

 were the unimproved original stock from which the present 

 English breeds have sprung. Later, George Washington and 

 other leading agriculturists of the time, introduced sheep repre- 

 senting the early breeding improvement in Europe. After the 

 organization of the national government the Merinos made 

 their appearance. In 1860, the Merino was the outstanding 

 feature among American sheep. In 1870, more than four-fifths 

 of American sheep were Merinos or their grades. There were a 

 few middle-wooled sheep and a very few flocks of the long-wooled 

 breeds in the middle states and in the Ohio valley. The old 

 coarse wools were scattered through the South. Kentucky had 

 the largest number of long wools. Importations were made 

 from England and Canada. In Texas and New Mexico were 

 Mexican sheep of Spanish origin that had degenerated and 

 almost reverted to the wild state. Their fleeces were coarse 

 and hairy and weighed only one or two pounds. 



When the first exports of beef were made to England, about 

 1875, the "Scotsman," a Scottish newspaper, sent Mr. James 

 Macdonald to America to investigate the American live-stock 

 industry and render a complete report. The results of this 

 investigation were published by Mr. Macdonald in 1878 in a 

 book entitled, "Food from the Far West." His remarks upon 

 the state of the sheep industry in the United States at that time 

 were as follows: 



"No one in political or agricultural circles, or elsewhere, 

 seems so confident of the export of mutton becoming or con- 

 tinuing so extensive or so profitable as that of beef. Mutton 

 is not considered an important article of food in America, and 

 the feeding of sheep has received but very little attention from 

 its farmers. Sheep-farming is certainly carried on very ex- 

 tensively all over America, especially in the Western States of 

 the Union and on the Pacific slopes; but, with a few exceptions 

 in the older and Eastern States, the sheep-farmer's whole harvest 

 is his "clip" of wool. There is no demand for mutton, and there- 



235 



