138 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



every bank having national encouragement should be obliged to give 

 assistance in procuring them and providing for their care and increase! 

 Whether from the flock of Seth Adams or that of Col. Humphreys, 

 through sales made by Blislia Ives at Pittsburg, or from the later im- 

 portations of William Jarvis, does not clearly appear, but probably of the 

 latter, through Mr. Adams, Story & Nichols, of Georgetown, Ky., 

 had a flock which was sheared April 24, 1812, by William Story. The 

 flock consisted of sixteen full-blooded Merinos, ten of which were im- 

 ported from Spain. The product was as follows : 



Pounds. Ounces. 



A buck (Judas), fleece weighed 12 4 



A buck (Don Carlos), fleece weighed 9 12 



Eight imported ewes (average), fleece weighed 7 11 



An ewe lamb (Sancho), 15 months old, fleece weighed 9 



A buck (Palleford), 15 mouths old, fleece weighed 8 8 



An ewe lamb, 15 months old, fleece weighed 7 8 



A young buck (Columbus), 10 months old, fleece weighed 7 



A young buck, 10 months old 5 



A young ewe, 10 months old 5 4 



About 100 prominent citizens of Scott County attended the shearing, 

 all of whom were surprised to see that the wool of the Merino should so 

 far exceed in quantity and quality the best wool of the common sheep 

 of the Western country. 



Mr. Seth Adams died in 1852 at the advanced age of 84. It is not 

 possible to trace sheep to his flock, with one possible exception, and 

 none of them are found recorded in the " Register of the Ohio Spanish 

 Merino Sheep Breeders 7 Association,' 7 but Mr. Adams is entitled to 

 much credit, as no doubt the blood of his sheep was disseminated 

 through many of the early flocks of southeastern Ohio, and still more 

 widely in Kentucky and Tennessee by the addition of Humphreys and 

 Jarvis blood. Not only did he introduce the first pair of Merino sheep 

 into the United States that bred, but he was the first to carry them 

 into Ohio, and thence into Kentucky and Tennessee.* 



In 1802 Eobert E. Livingston, United States minister to France, 

 sent home to his estate on the Hudson two pairs of Merinos. Livings- 

 ton was a prominent man in public affairs and an enthusiastic revolu- 

 tionist. He was recorder of New York city for two years, member of 

 the provincial assembly of New York, a delegate to the Continental 

 Congress, and one of the committee to draft the Declaration of Indepen- 

 dence. He was chancellor of the State of New York and administered 

 to George Washington the oath of office as President of the United 

 States. He was appointed minister to France in 1801 ; enjoyed the 

 personal friendship of Napoleon, and was successful in accomplishing 



* The exception is made upon this authority : " In 1809 Israel Putnam, of Marietta, 

 Ohio, bought of Seth Adams some full-blooded Merinos, and founded a flock, which 

 was continued by his son, L. J. P. Putnam, substantially to the present time, but 

 without registration." "The American Merino; for wool and for mutton." By 

 Stephen Powers, 1887. 



