SHEEP. 221 



" In 1805, only tliirtccn years since, he began an establish- 

 ment with two rams and ninety-two ewes, of the Merino breed. 

 In eleven lambings this moderate flock produced 1,087 males, 

 and 1,001 females ; total, 2,088 ; of which he lost by disease^ 

 354. He sold 534, and had remaining in good health at the 

 end of eleven years 1,200, the produce of his original stock of 

 ninety-four. The money produce, for that period, of the flock 

 was as follows : From the sales of wool, 33,381 pounds, which 

 he sold for forty cents per pound, (a price only two-fifths of the 

 average or even lowest price in Great Britain and America,) 

 he received in cash, $13,600. From the sales of sheep he 

 realized 810,300. And his sheep on hand valued at the 

 rate at which the others were sold, were worth $26,000 ; 

 making a total gain in eleven years, from ninety-four Merino 

 sheep, of $49,000. 



" He estimated his remaining sheep at twenty dollars per 

 head, which, for so pure a flock, is not extravagant. 



" There is no fallacy in this statement, which I have been 

 able to detect, monstrous as the result may appear to be, that 

 from a capital of $1,800 in sheep, a produce of $50,000 had 

 been realized in eleven years." 



Mr. Lowell expresses himself satisfied of the correctness of 

 this statement. That it may not appear wholly extravagant, we 

 would refer to sales recently made in Vermont, within our own 

 knowledge. A careful and experienced breeder there has paid 

 during this autumn one hundred dollars for a buck lamb, and 

 twenty-five dollars per head for sixteen ewe lambs ; and con- 

 siders himself fortunate in having obtained them at these rates. 

 One breeder in Vermont sells from $5,000 to $8,000 worth 

 of sheep annually, and keeps his flock good meanwhile. 

 Prudent and economical farmers in that State pay frequently 

 fifty dollars per head for breeding ewes ; and ewe lambs are 

 considered worth ten dollars per head, as a fair market value. 

 These prices are of course obtained for pure bred animals, of 

 the most approved breeds in the State, breeds whose quality 

 and quantity of woo\ have reached a high standard. Vermont, 

 it will 1)0 remembered, is a wool-growing State. And there are 

 abundant facts to prove that the Merino is of all sheep the most 

 profitable producer of wool. 



