236 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



tions not paying expenses, for the farmers and many others had not yet 

 recovered from their severe losses on the Spanish Merinos between 1816 

 and 1820, and were slow to respond to the appeals made in behalf of the 

 Saxony. For a short time the prices ruled not as high as the importers 

 had anticipated, though higher than the Spanish Merino was held at 

 that time. In addition to the prices noted at the importers 7 sales, it is 

 known that many sales were made throughout the country at a great 

 advance upon them. In January, 1825, a Saxon ram sold in Connecticut 

 for $230; two at $120 each; one at $100; one-half of another for 

 $100. One ewe sold for $110 and three for $100 each. In April, 1826, 

 at a sale at Albany, ST. Y., seven rams sold for $150 to $210 each, 

 and fourteen ewes at $60 each prices deemed so low that the sale 

 was stopped. Many descendants of Saxony Merino and Spanish Merino 

 crossed were on the market in 1826 and 1827, and the rapid multiplica- 

 tion of them was marvelous. But the importation had declined in 1827. 

 The early American history and fortunes of this sheep are bound up 

 with the question of the American tariff and the condition of British 

 trade. The tariff act of 1824 encouraged the American woolen manu- 

 facture and 2,288 Saxony sheep were imported in 1826. But the neces- 

 sities of the British manufacturer threw an immense quantity of wool- 

 ens on the American market which more than neutralized the good 

 effects of the tariff, and the Saxony Merino shared in the general 

 depression, only 398 being imported in 1827. Wool declined rapidly in 

 price and Saxony sheep fell from a general average of about $30 per 

 head to less than $24 per head, many rams selling as low as $8 and 

 ewes at $6. For the Spanish Merino there were no sales. Half-blood 

 Merinos and common sheep were consigned to destruction by tlion- 

 sands. But with the passage of the tariff of 1828, generally known as 

 the "woolens bill," the interest in Saxony sheep revived, and there was 

 a great excitement among the wool-growers and the woolen manufac- 

 turers, an excitement and exhilaration that carried beyond the bounds 

 of sober reason. "Especially among the former were scores exhibited 

 that would be remembered with amusement," says Henry S. Eandall, 

 u had not their results proved so injurious to public and private in- 

 terests." What he says upon this point applies not only to Massa- 

 chusetts and New England, but to every part of the United States 

 where flne-wooled sheep husbandry was followed: 



Intelligent and enterprising farmers pulled down their barns to build greater. 

 or at least made the most costly preparations for growing wool, and then sent one 

 hundred or one thousand miles to purchase Saxon sheep at $100 or $500 a head. 

 When the prodigies arrived, with what a blank look the proprietor, and with what 

 an irrepressible titter the farm laborers first surveyed the little strangers! If they 

 had been exposed to storms and hardships on their journey, they did indeed present a 

 very disconsolate appearance. The public were in the midst of a fine-wool cyclone. 

 The manufacturer and producer talked of the exquisite fineness of this or that clip 

 but whether the sheep which bore it yielded much or little, had good or bad car- 

 casses, were hardy or feeble, was scarcely a matter of thought. Enormously exag- 

 gerated expectations of the future demand for Saxon wool were entertained; it was 



