CHAPTER XXVI 



THE DELAINE MERINO 



History. The Delaine Merino is a pure Merino descended from 

 the same original stock as the American Merino, but distinguished 

 from it by its smooth body and its long, fine wool, which attains a 

 length of three inches or more in twelve months. Breeders devel- 

 oped the smooth bodies in order to get a sheep suitable for mutton, 

 and they bred for long, fine wool with a view to getting a product 

 suitable for making worsteds, a type of cloth requiring wool long 

 enough to be combed out so that the fibers are arranged parallel to 

 each other. 



There are several types of Delaine Merino to which various names 

 have been given. These types have been supported by different 

 societies, but they are very similar and really should be considered, 

 not as separate breeds, but as strains of the same breed. Some of 

 the original importations of Merinos were bred to maintain a smooth 

 body and a neck with a light fold, which were characteristic of the 

 sheep as they were bred in Spain. A notable example was the flock 

 of Counsel Jarvis, but the owners of flocks of this sort did not aim 

 consistently at increasing the length of fleece or at improving the 

 mutton conformation. 



The breeding which resulted in the development of the real 

 Delaine Merino occurred in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. 

 About 1809, W. E. Dickinson, of Steubenville, Ohio, got possession of 

 some of the sheep that Humphrey imported in 1802. He maintained 

 these in their purity until 1830, when he disposed of his flock. At 

 the time the flock was dispersed, Adam Hildebrand, formerly in 

 the employ of Dickinson, bought a few of the ewes, and James 

 McDowell, who also had been in the employ of Dickinson and was 

 then working for H'ildebrand, received as a part of his remunera- 

 tion two of the best ewe lambs and the second best ram lamb in the 

 last crop bred by Dickinson. These lambs were sired by a large, fine 

 ram known as Bolivar, and it is said that they were the foundation 

 from which the Dickinson Delaine descended. 



Over in Pennsylvania, the foundation stock was an importation 

 made in 1820 by R. W. Mead. The sheep first came into the 

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