FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 51 



" The first importation of Saxony sheep into the 

 United States was made by Mr. Samuel Henshaw, a 

 merchant of Boston, at the instance of Colonel James 

 Shephard, of Northampton. They were but six or 

 seven in number. In 1824 Messrs G. & T. Searle, of 

 Boston, imported seventy-seven Saxon sheep. They 

 were selected and purchased by a Mr. Kretchman, a 

 correspondent of the above firm, residing in Leipsic, 

 and shipped at Bremen on board the American 

 schooner Yelocity. I was engaged to take charge of 

 the sheep on the passage, and I also shipped six on 

 my own account. I am sorry to say that as many as 

 one-third of the sheep purchased by Kretchman (who 

 shared profit and loss in the undertaking) were not 

 pure-blooded sheep. The cargo was sold at auction 

 at Brooklyn, as ' pure-blooded Electoral Saxons,' and 

 thus unfortunately in the very outset the pure and 

 impure became irrevocably mixed. But I feel the 

 greatest certainty that the Messrs. Searle intended to 

 import none but the pure stock. The fault lay with 

 Kretchman. In the fall of 1824, I entered into an 

 arrangement with the Messrs. Searle to return to 

 Saxony, and purchase, in connection with Kretchman, 

 from 160 to 200 Electoral sheep. I was detained at 

 sea seven weeks, which gave rise to the belief that I 

 was shipwrecked and lost. "When I finally arrived, 

 the sheep had been already bought by Kretchman. 

 On being informed of what the purchase consisted, I 

 protested against taking them to America, and insisted 



herd of his day in our country. Mr. Grove was an ardent, decided 

 man, prejudiced by early associations for the favorite sheep of his 

 native country, and by the fact that his own skill produced exceptional 

 results in their favor, and thus gave them an entire advantage when 

 brought into comparison with rival varieties or flocks which were less 

 perfectly managed. But where he states any fact on his own knowl- 

 edge, it can always be implicitly relied on. The German fatherland 

 never sent out a more incorruptible son. 



