EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 223 



the result was quite a success. Naturally the cross on those of the 

 islands and Iceland endured better the rigor of the climate and lived 

 on the coarsest food. Upon this foundation Sweden introduced the 

 Spanish Merino. 



Mr. Alstroemer, a spirited and patriotic individual, who, as early as 

 L7 15, had made the attempt to improve the poor native breed, believed 

 that improvement should not be limited to the partial success attained 

 >y the use of the German, English, Dutch, and Iceland breeds. With 

 the view of progressing beyond this point and producing a fine-wooled 



teep, he imported from. Spain in 1723 a small flock of pure Merinos, 



id succeeded in acclimating, naturalizing, and propagating in a rigor- 

 ms climate a breed which from appearances and tradition could be 

 maintained only in a warm one. Thus Sweden became the first nation 

 of Europe to take advantage of the superior fleeced sheep of Spain. 



For some years the attempt was met with discouragement of many 

 kinds, unt il, in 1739, the Swedish Government, convinced that the ig- 

 norance of the shepherds was a great obstacle to success in the propa- 

 gation of the breed, instituted a shepherd's school, the direction and 

 charge of which was given to Mr. Alstroemer. In 1740 the State created 

 a fund for the purpose of awarding premiums to individuals who bred 

 rams of the Spanish breed; and from that time a bounty of 25 per cent 

 was paid upon the value of fine wool, of good quality, to the grower, 

 until 1781, when it was reduced to 15 per cent; and still further to 12 

 per cent from 1786 to 1792, at which latter date the bounty ceased. 

 Sweden then possessed upwards of 100,000 full-bred Merinos, and 

 nearly 1,000,000 mixed bloods, and was able to supply all her wants 

 in wool without any importations from Spain, and the sheep had not 

 degenerated in the space of more than seventy years, though Sweden, 

 of all cultivated countries, is perhaps the least calculated for sheep ; 

 the length of the days during its short summer parches its barren fields, 

 and for seven months it is buried in snow. 



The breeding of these fine sheep was almost exclusively undertaken 

 by well-to-do farmers. The Swedish peasants, who had ordinarily only 

 a very small number of sheep, and who were in the habit of manufac- 

 turing the materials of their own clothing, were obliged to preserve 

 their old breeds, which only produced long and coarse wool, that they 

 knew not how to dispense with. 



The Merinos did not increase rapidly, for it happened here, as else- 

 where, that there was a prejudice against them, some not willing to 

 abandon the sheep of their fathers and grandfathers, others not believ- 

 ing the breed could be successfully propagated. Some willingly under- 

 took the experiment, and imagining the sheep of that breed could be 

 left to shift for themselves and go without care subjected them to the^ 

 same system that they were accustomed to follow with their hardy 

 native sheep, by inclosing them in damp, badly cleaned, infectious 

 stables, in which the air was foul by reason of too much heat. They 



