EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 169 



HI.M->. although carrying nearly as line wool as lie ever saw, Dr. Mo;isc 

 ras induced to kill them. His last lull-blood ram lamb was killed in 

 uly. 1809, for fear that lie would begin to exercise his powers among 

 he ewes. He was out of his own imported black ewe, by Col. Hum- 

 hreys 7 full-blooded white ram. The mutton of this rani was excellent, 

 ke that from the Welsh sheep. 



In the fall of 1808 Dr. Mease added 16 half-blood Dishleys or New 

 Xeicesters and crossed them with his new acquisition, by which the 

 form of the progeny was improved. A shorter- wooled sheep would 

 -have been preferred, but all distinctions of sheep in that section of the 

 country had been lost and the forms of the drove sheep were very infe- 

 rior. He took his chances as to the result of the cross on the working 

 quality of the wool and made sure of improving the form. The flock 

 soon partook of the quality of the Leicester sheep. Leicester rams were 

 introduced into it and the black Spanish Merino blood eliminated. 



Although. Dr. Mease bred them assiduously for a few years, it is not 

 known that any one bought them. In November, 1808, he advertised 

 & few half blood Merino rams for sale. Their color was not given. 

 SBomewhat later than this there were fifteen black Merino rams, 

 I* selected from the best flocks in Spain," advertised in one lot for sale 

 an Boston. Dr. Mease bred from the Humphreys sheep also, and it 

 rwas from him that the first Merino ram introduced in South Carolina 

 wa s purchased early in 1808. 



In 1807 Dittmar Basse Muller, formerly of Germany, then of Phila- 

 delphia, imported G Merino sheep from the flock of the Prince of 

 Hesse Cassel. These sheep were all remarkably fine animals, and, at 

 Muller's request, James Caldwell took them to his farm at Haddon- 

 field, near Philadelphia, and kept them until they recovered from the 

 effects of the voyage and were in proper condition to travel. Caldwell 

 purchased one of the rams, for which he paid $100, to replace one he 

 had bought of Col. Humphreys in 1806, but which had died, and bred 

 him to the two Merino ewes, also purchased from Col. Humphreys with 

 tli j ram in the fall of 1806. Mr. Caldwell, writing nearly twenty years 

 after this, had every reason to believe that the sheep imported by 

 Muller were pure Merinos. The descendants of Muller's rain and the 

 Humphreys ewes were fine animals, and some of them became justly 

 ^celebrated. Columbus, the first ram descendant, when 2 years old, in 

 the spring or early summer of 1810, sheared 9 pounds of wool, and 

 wMghed, after being shorn, 145 pounds, and Columbia, the first female 

 descendant, at the same age and at the same time, sheared 7 pounds 9 

 ounces. A yearling ram, Spaniola, sheared at the same time 12 pounds 

 of washed wool, and his weight after being shorn was 142 pounds. The 

 paper recording these facts makes the further statement that 

 I Columbus, Columbia, and Spaniola are pure Merino descendants of the finest 

 locks in Spain ; the sire was selected from the Prince of Hesse Cassel's flock, that 

 Ebad been a present from the King of Spain, and the ewes imported by Col. Hum- 

 phreys while minister to that country. 



