112 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



from North Africa, which they had carefully cultivated, and 

 from whose fleeces were woven fabrics of superlative quality. 

 The fine sheep of Spain a hundred years ago numbered 

 over twenty millions, and were long preserved as a monop- 

 oly with jealous care. Sweden has the honor of being the 

 tir-t country which secured a flock of these coveted animals. 

 France, though adjoining Spain, obtained none till near the 

 close of the last century. In 17<>") the Elector of Saxony 

 succeeded in securing a flock, which, crossed on the native 

 fine sheep of his kingdom, and carefully bred, made the 

 Saxonies so famous for the fineness of their wool here sixty 

 years ago. The skill and ability with which the Spanish 

 Merinos were bred and cultivated in this part of the country 

 were convincingly shown at an international exhibition in 

 1861, at Hamburg, Germany, when American Merinos, 

 bred by George Campbell of Vermont, and exhibited under 

 the direction of Col. Daniel Needham, formerly of our Board, 

 captured the prizes and defied competition. 



Saxonies. 



The Saxonies were first imported by Samuel Henshaw of 

 Boston, and much was anticipated from the introduction of 

 these sheep producing such superlatively fine wool. When 

 they were introduced, in 1823 or 1824, they were much 

 smaller and of a feebler constitution than their parent stock, 

 the Spanish Merinos; the wool was from an inch to an inch 

 and a half long on the back and sides, and a washed fleece 

 weighed only about one and three-fourths pounds. Attempts 

 at improvement by crossing with the Merinos were made in 

 vain ; both deteriorated, and before 18.50 the Saxonies had 

 mostly gone out. They have been lessening in number 

 greatly ever since, and, although we nominally have about 

 a thousand, I doubt if there is a genuine, pure-bred Saxon 

 in the State. 



From the long-established policy of the British Govern- 

 ment in encouraging and fostering the manufactures of that 

 country and of discouraging and even forbidding any 

 attempts toward it in her colonies, we found ourselves, at the 

 close of the war of the revolution, not only without the man- 

 ufactories of woollens but also destitute of the material from 



