MERINO SHEEP 147 



ment flock of Chalons, and afterward a ram from 

 the Rambouillet flocks. 



A table given by Livingston in 1810 is interest- 

 ing in showing the effect of the first cross on the 

 common or native sheep. The average weight of 

 the fleeces of a flock of these was three pounds ten 

 ounces; that of the half-bred Merino offspring, five 

 pounds one ounce. Similar results came of the 

 larger importation, in the same year, by Colonel 

 Humphreys, our Minister to Spain, of twenty-one 

 rams and seventy ewes, selected from the Infan- 

 tado family. In 1809 and 1810 Mr. Jarvis, Ameri- 

 can Consul at Lisbon, bought nearly four thousand 

 sheep of the confiscated flocks of Spanish nobles, 

 all of which were shipped to different ports in the 

 United States, and in those years, and the one 

 following, from three thousand to five thousand 

 Spanish Merinos were imported by other persons. 

 In 1809 and 1810 half-blood Merino wool was sold 

 for seventy-five cents and full blood for two dol- 

 lars a pound, and during the War of 1812 the latter 

 sold for two dollars and fifty cents a pound. Natu- 

 rally, a Merino fever was engendered, and imported 

 and American-born rams of the breed were sold for 

 enormous prices, some of Livingston's ram lambs 

 for one thousand dollars each. But such a sudden 

 downfall followed the Peace of Ghent that, before 

 the end of the year 1815, full-blooded sheep were 

 sold for one dollar each. 



