32 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



is figured from a drawing furnished by himself, in 

 Yol. I, of the " Transactions of the (N. Y.) Society 

 for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufac- 

 tures." It represents a low, compact animal, with a 

 smooth, long face, a skin free from folds on any part, 

 and legs without wool below the knees. Though 

 somewhat out of drawing, it is, obviously, the figure 

 of a class of Merinos very common twenty years ago, 

 and yet to be found in ordinary unimproved flocks. 

 The type is essentially Spanish, there not being the 

 most remote resemblance to the French sheep of the 

 present day. 



Mr. Livingston made another importation of a sin- 

 gle French ram in 1807, and he speaks of having pur- 

 chased some choice ewes brought to France from 

 Spain. But I do not learn that the latter ever arrived 

 in this country. His sheep attracted no special notice 

 until 1807 or 1808, when he began to sell his rams for 

 $150 apiece.* Half-blood rams and ewes, bred from 

 his rams on common sheep, sold for twelve dollars a 

 piece. 



This eminent public benefactor had too many pur- 

 fed on hay, and had no shelter. They brought two lambs the first 

 year, and three of them (he had let his brother have one of the rams) 

 sheared 11 Ibs. of washed wool nearly 3 Ibs. 12 oz. each. The next 

 year the lambs came in January, "were neglected, and died I" In 

 1805 "one of the ewes was sick and brought no lamb; the other 

 dropped a ewe lamb ; and the five fleeces (from the three old sheep 

 and two shearlings), when washed, weighed 18 Ibs., besides the tags 

 and waste wool," upwards of 3 Ibs. 8 oz. each. The Chancellor 

 "thought this a considerable yield from small sheep, kept upon hay, 

 in a flock with twenty other sheep 1" See Livingston's Essay, &c., in 

 ] 806, subsequently expanded into his more elaborate Essay of 1809. 



* For a choice one- raised by himself, ten months old, he refused 

 $1,000. 



