154 MERINO SHEEP 



mont wool fell into the evil repute of being filthy- 

 stuff, more grease and dirt than honest fiber. The 

 tide ebbed again to lowest watermark; again the 

 inheritors of the blue blood of the Paulars and In- 

 fantados went to the shambles at the prices paid 

 for the meanest plebeian natives, and it seemed 

 as if the sheep-farming of Vermont had got its 

 death-blow. 



Even so had the farming of sheep for wool; for 

 in the great West a vast region had been opened 

 wherein sheep could be kept at such a fraction of 

 the cost entailed in winter-burdened New Eng- 

 land that there was nothing for the Yankee wool- 

 grower but to give up the losing fight. So most 

 shepherds turned dairymen. 



But, gifted with a wise foresight, a few owners 

 of fine flocks kept them and bred them as care- 

 fully as ever, and in the fullness of time were richly 

 rewarded. After a while it became evident that 

 the flocks of the West could only be kept up to the 

 desired standard by frequent infusions of the East- 

 em blood; and so it has come about that sheep- 

 breeding in Vermont is a greater, stronger-founded, 

 and more prosperous industry than ever before. 

 Each year more and more buyers come from Texas, 

 California, Colorado, and Austraha; and on many 

 an unpretending Vermont farm, after examination 

 of points and pedigree, often more carefully kept 

 than their owner's, the horn-coroneted dons of 



