156 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



greater part of the Merinos made annually, because there were other 

 flocks of the same race which remained perpetually in the same disJ 

 tricts whose fleeces were of the same consistency, precisely, as the oth- ; 

 ers. Flocks that did travel and those that did not travel, which were 

 nourished with plentiful food and taken good care of, by excluding the 

 deformed, sick, and weak from becoming breeders, had been preserved 

 in all the purity of the original stock ; while those, in either predicament, 

 migratory or resident, which were subjected to feel the effects of scar- 

 city and negligence, invariably degenerated. Casualty or necessity, 

 rather than foresight or reason, introduced the practice of entertaining 

 migrating flocks. They multiplied as industry in cultivating the soil 

 diminished. The nobles or rich individuals, who were the proprietors, 

 found their advantage in them. The trouble and expense of keeping 

 and nourishing was small. Accident was converted into system. Pre- 

 scription gave a sanction to the proceeding, highways were obliged to 

 be left wide, privileges were granted, and laws formed for the protection 

 of this species of property, to the detriment of the community; for, by 

 these means, agriculture was checked and crops circumscribed in 

 limits. The vigilance of the shepherds, in remaining day and night 

 with their charge, in reserving the best formed and finest wooled only 

 for breeding, and in knowing and attending to each individual of their 

 flocks, contributed much to preserve them from degeneration. 



Col. Humphreys, being a public-spirited and wealthy man, intent 

 upon doing a patriotic service to his country, sought to introduce these 

 famed Spanish Merino sheep into the United States. There was a 

 difficulty in the strictness of the laws that guarded these flocks, but 

 relaxation was made in his favor, and the sheep, 100 in number, were 

 shipped to Connecticut. 



Col. Humphreys' own statement of this transaction was made to the 

 Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, August 25, 1802: 



Convinced that this race of sheep, of which, I believe, not one had been brought 

 to the United States until the importation by myself, might be introduced with great 

 benefit to our country, I contracted with a person, of the most respectable character, to 

 deliver to me, at Lisbon, 100, composed of 25 rams and 75 ewes, from one to two years 

 old. They were conducted, with proper passports, across the country of Portugal 

 by three Spanish shepherds, and escorted by a small guard of Portuguese soldiers. 

 On the 10th of April last (1802) they were embarked in the Tagus, on board the ship 

 Persevei-ance, of 250 tons, Caleb Coggeshall master. In about fifty days 21 rams and 

 70 ewes were landed at Derby, Conn., they having been shifted at New York on board 

 of a sloop destined to that river. The 9 which died were principally killed in con- 

 sequence of bruises received by the violent rolling of the vessel on the Banks of New- 

 foundland. To prevent that and other disasters, as far as might be, by prudent pre- 

 cautions, the whole space between decks was divided into four pens of 25 sheep each, 

 the rams having been kept separate in one, and the least vigorous ewes in another, 

 with convenient racks, troughs, and tubs for feeding and watering them. The change 

 from the open air to close confinement, and from green to dry food, occasioned them 

 to suffer less inconvenience than I had apprehended. They ate more than a pound 

 of English hay each, together with about a gill of Indian corn, or an equivalent of 

 bran, with salt occasionally, and drank at the rate of nearly a quart of water a day. 



