EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 237 



to increase with our increasing population; the tariff was to raise prices to the 

 highest pitch; and then the tariff and the high prices were to stand for generations, 

 if not forever. 



It is remarkable that this Saxon mania had so little effect, comparatively, on the 

 estimated value of the descendants of the Spanish Merino in our country. They 

 rose in value; hut their chief value seemed to be considered as resting on the fact 

 that they would grade up more rapidly than common sheep toward the Saxon stand- 

 ard of fineness; in other words, make a better cross with the Saxon. The idea that 

 they had a separate value, approaching that of the latter, appears to have entered 

 nobody's mind. Yet at that very time the average of Saxon wool was not 10 cents 

 higher a pound than Spanish, and the product of a Spanish sheep was worth more 

 in market than the product of a Saxon sheep. Even the prices of fine wool did not 

 rise until near the close of 1830. American producers of very tine wools have ever 

 fed on expectation, but never attained the fruition of their hopes. 



Wool did not respond to the sanguine hopes of the wool-grower. 

 Wool that sold in 1825 for 42 and 45 cents sold for 30 and 35 cents in 

 1 S29, and down to 29 and 33 J cents well- washed, full-blood American 

 Merino wool. Clean Saxony wool sold all the way from 35 to 80 cents. 

 This was early in the year. In July there was a decline on all these 

 prices, full-blood Merino, washed, selling as low as 27 cents, and at this 

 time, at Northampton, Mass., the difference in price between the three- 

 quarter bred Merino and half-blood Saxony, between pretty fine and 

 very fine wool, was only a few cents. Some fleeces of half- Saxony sold 

 for 32 and 33 cents. At the same time a Saxon ram that had cost 

 $80 sold for $12. It was so in all New England; the grower could 

 realize but 90 cents to $1.10 for his fleece, though the sheep were of 

 improved breed and cost $1.15 to $1.50 per year to keep. What was 

 true in Massachusetts and New England was true in the Middle States 

 and the West. Wool was low everywhere. 



The great decline in wool was fatal to sheep husbandry, and the new 

 Saxony sheep lost its popularity. In most communities there was no 

 sale for them. But there were other causes for the decline of the Saxony 

 sheep. After they had been generally crossed on the Spanish Merino 

 and its grades it was found to be less hardy than the Spanish Merino, 

 and wherever its blood was introduced it was universally followed by 

 a decline in constitution and all its attendant evils. Their fleeces were 

 too light to protect them sufficiently from the cold and wet, and besides 

 the fleece was not remunerative, averaging only 2J pounds. Though 

 not strictly in place, the early experience of William Jarvis with these 

 Saxony sheep may here be told, for what was true of them in Vermont 

 was found true in Massachusetts. Writing in 1832, he says : 



I have been an attentive breeder of Merino sheep for twenty-two years, and six 

 years of Saxony, and my own experience, as well as that of my neighbors, has proved 

 that the Spanish Merino has a more vigorous constitution, is a hardier animal, and 

 much less liable to diseases than the Saxony. * * * In 1826 a greater number of 

 Saxony sheep were imported than I believe were before, or have been since, all put 

 together. Two cargoes were sold at Brighton in May of that year, containing nearly 

 500, which I closely examined, and think there were not 20 among them of any 

 one flock which was readily determined by the earmarks. I purchased 54, 4 of which 

 only were from the same flock. I put 8 bucks out of these to 300 Merino ewes, 



