234 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



& Multer owners. It numbered 210, and the whole cost in Germany 

 was $1.125. With the exception of a small number, procured to make 

 a flourish on in their advertisements for sale, these were sheep having 

 no pretensions to purity of blood. Two of the five named cargoes ar- 

 riving at Boston (in addition to the one sold May 14, 1823) were sold 

 at auction at Brighton. A sale of October 21 included 124 bucks and 

 76 ewes, by the ship Tartar. The total amount of this sale was $5,354, 

 the rams averaging $25.85 and the ewes $28.25. The other cargo, by 

 the ship Catharine, consisted of 174 rams and 30 ewes, and realized 

 but $2,051.50, the rams averaging $9.71 and the ewes $12.05. Some 

 old-fashioned Spanish Merinos were put up at one of these sales. They 

 were from three-eighths to full blood, and fetched from $5.50 to $26 

 each. 



Early in 1826 Oapt. Chandler, of the brig Samuel, imported into Bos- 

 ton, from Bremen, 167 Saxon sheep. The wool of these sheep was of 

 extreme fineness and beauty, and July 13, 1826, 190 rams and 30 ewes 

 were offered for sale at Brighton, which had arrived from Bremen by the 

 Hyperion, said to be pure Electoral Saxons. 



A correspondent of the Cultivator who lived near Brighton, where 

 the first flocks of these Saxony sheep were sold at auction, and at which 

 he was a purchaser, says that the novelty of the consideration that a new 

 breed of sheep far surpassing the Merino, which in preceding estima- 

 tion had been considered the ultimatum of excellence and so recently 

 sold at extravagant prices, at once excited the highest sheep frenzy and 

 assembled at the first sale all those who had imbibed a particle of taste 

 and interest in sheep culture. Of this and many other flocks imported 

 at this time four flocks might be admitted to be called Saxony sheep, 

 and of these one-half might be denominated prime. These sheep were 

 generally labeled, but the best were branded either with a cross or a 

 crown. The same writer saw two entire flocks sold, which were brought 

 as a return cargo, the captain being master and factor, which would 

 disgrace any country whose name should be associated with pure blood 

 and fine wool. These sheep were purchased by speculators and sold 

 through the country as Saxony sheep. 



In August, 1827, the brig Comet came into Boston harbor from Ham- 

 burg with 101 Saxony sheep, all rams from one to four years old. They 

 were sold at Brighton at prices ranging from $8 to $64, the average 

 price being $27 per head. This was an importation of Watmuss & 

 Multer, and Mr. Grove says the sheep were selected exclusively from 

 grade flocks of a low character. Shortly after this the Messrs. Searles 

 imported in the Mentor from Hamburg 182 Saxons. These were sold 

 October 18, 1827. The 21 rams sold from $18 to $68, and the 161 ewes 

 from $6 to $72. They were like the importations preceding, a mixture 

 of pure and impure blooded sheep. The papers of the day in chron- 

 icling the sale remarked that the disposition to purchase seemed good, 

 but the sheep were not as good as former exportations. Mr. Grove 



