38 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



some value to those who term themselves " breeders," 

 to know that those who had the good sense or good 

 luck thus to preserve them in their purity were far- 

 mers of little information, and wholly obscure until 

 their connection with these sheep raised them to 

 notoriety. 



Mr. ? * of Philadelphia, had, as early 



as 1796-'97, sent on order to Spain for a Merino ram. 

 The animal reached the Capes of Delaware safely, 

 but was there washed overboard in a storm. He sent 

 an order for a pair in 1801, instead of which two 

 pairs of Hack ones reached him in 1803 ! This he 

 supposed done to " increase the profit of the commis- 

 sion," for black Merinos " cost but little, being held in 

 no estimation in Spain." This gentleman bred from 

 these assiduously for a few years, but nobody would 

 buy them, and they had to be abandoned. 



Mr. Muller imported a pair of Merinos from the 

 flock of the Prince of Hesse Cassel in 1807, and they, 

 and their descendants, were kept about Philadelphia, 

 and in New Jersey and Delaware. James Caldwell, 

 Esq., of Philadelphia, interbred, with success, between 

 these and sheep from Colonel Humphreys' flock. 



But by far the most extensive and important impor- 

 tations of Spanish Merinos into the United States were 



* See second note back, and the text to which it is appended. I 

 find this account of his importation of black, sheep in the fragmentary 

 Essay mentioned in such text. The Essay will be found in a volume 

 of the Slate Agricultural Library, made up of miscellaneous papers and 

 extracts. It appears to have been published, in 1808 or 1809. The 

 author says the price of his sheep, in Spain, was $60, freight $20 

 The quantity of wool yielded by the two rams was 4f and 4 Ibs. ; 

 by the ewes, 3 and 3J- Ibs. This was washed wool, I suppose. 



