142 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doe. 



was a German baron on board the ship, who went to Mr. 

 Campbell and said, "I understand you have some Merino 

 sheep that you are going to take to Germany to compete 

 with German Merinos?" Mr. Campbell said "Yes;" and 

 he said, " Well, it is the old story of carrying coals to New- 

 castle," — and we almost felt that it was so. The sheep 

 reached Hamburg all right, though they had been a little 

 seasick on the passage, but they had eaten reasonably 

 well. They had been well fed with oats and beans. We 

 always fed our sheep with beans in Vermont, as one of 

 the best means of producing a good heavy fleece of wool. 

 Those sheep were made the subject of very general discus- 

 sion in the newspapers. Mr. Charles L. Flint, who was 

 the predecessor of Mr. Russell, in the office of secretary 

 of the Board of Agriculture, was also a commissioner to 

 that exhibition for the State of Massachusetts. Governor 

 Wright of Indiana was the commissioner from his State 

 and from the United States, appointed by President Lin- 

 coln ; and Rhode Island and other States had commis- 

 sioners there. When our sheep got there they imme- 

 diately began to be the butt of ridicule of the German press, 

 and they took up the story of the baron, that it was "carrying 

 coals to Newcastle ;" that the United States — they did not 

 know anything about Vermont — had sent sheep over to 

 Europe to compete with the Spanish Merinos of Germany. 

 Germany had had almost full sway in the production of 

 stock Merino sheep for more than thirty-five years, — ever 

 since Spain gave it up. We nevertheless went to work, put 

 our sheep into pens, and entered them in the various classes. 

 There were some three hundred Merinos at the exhibi- 

 tion. The judges of the exhibition were men who 

 knew nothing about the owners of the sheep, except 

 so far as they were obliged to know. They were obliged 

 to know that there was only one lot of sheep sent 

 over from the United States, and so far as they had to 

 know they knew of the owner ; but when those sheep 

 passed under the inspection and study of the judges it seemed 

 to me that they were unprejudiced. They were called 

 "Vermont Merinos," but I venture to say that there were 

 not fifty men on those grounds, which sometimes contained 



