4 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



importation, by Stephen Atwood, of Connecticut.* I 



* Mr. Atwood writes me that in the spring of 1813 he bought a ewe 

 of Colonel Humphreys for $120, and put her to a ram "that Young- 

 love Cutler bought of Colonel Humphreys in 1807." This was the 

 starting-point of his flock. He put their descendants to rams raised 

 from Colonel Humphreys' sheep in his neighborhood, until about 1830, 

 after which period he used rams of his own raising. This is the dis- 

 tinct and positive statement of a man whose character is considered 

 good by those who know him. It has been uniformly made and per- 

 sisted in by him from a period long anterior to the tune when the 

 public attached any particular importance to the fact whether the 

 sheep were descended exclusively from Colonel Humphreys' importa- 

 tion or not. Though I own sheep of this family, I have never regarded 

 that point of particular importance ; and I commenced sifting out the 

 facts on the present occasion leaning towards the opposite belief. But 

 I find Mr. Atwood' s statements persistent, coherent, reasonable in 

 themselves, originally made under no peculiar motive of interest, and 

 he certainly ought to know the history of his own flock better than 

 those who are not even his near neighbors. To the only individual 

 who has, so far as I know, impeached the accuracy of Mr. Atwood' s 

 statements, I recently applied for a history of his own flock, only for 

 the purpose of giving him the place and credit to which I supposed 

 him entitled as a breeder of the pure descendants of imported Merino 

 sheep. Something in the reply, and something in another letter re- 

 ceived at the same period, induced me to question him in relation to 

 Mr. Atwood's flock. He says that prior to about the year 1822, Mr. 

 Atwood's sheep were Negrettis "the hardest kind of Spanish sheep;" 

 that Atwood then bought of him (my informant) a ram got by a ram 

 "bred by Daniel Bacon, out of his imported Escurial buck; "that some 



years after, Mr. Atwood hired a buck of (name illegible) that 



was got by his (my informant's) "best Escurial buck ;" that "from these 

 two bucks he (Atwood) has obtained his great credit." My informant 

 says his own ewes were Infantados. (See preceding note, where the 

 importation of Atwater and Peck is spoken of.) Admitting the sale, 

 purchase, and hiring above alleged, does it prove any thing ? Mr. At- 

 wood not only bought or hired, but used a Saxon ram one year ; but 

 wiser than his neighbors, promptly abandoned him and weeded all 

 his lambs out of the flock. If there was any Merino flock in the 

 United States specially unlike the Escurials, it was Mr. Atwood's 

 twenty years ago. and the same is true now. How, then, could his 



