EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 243 



of the board of agriculture reported that the sheep husbandry of the 

 State was tending with a remarkable directness and rapidity to the 

 growing of coarse and middle-wooled sheep for their flesh, and to the 

 exclusion of those breeds raised only for their wool all over the State, 

 except on the mountain ranges in the western part, where remoteness 

 from market and extensive tracts of rough pasture still maintained a 

 limited number of Merino flocks. Among the causes to which these 

 changes were traceable the committee noted the fluctuations in the 

 prices of fine wool, varying from 54 cents down to 28 cents during the 

 period from 1840 to 1860 ; the uncertainty of disposing of the clip; the 

 impossibility of competing with the immense sheep-walks of the West 

 and South, and Australia; the disproportionately increased expense, 

 trouble, and loss in a large flock of fine- wools over a smaller and more 

 profitable flock of mutton sheep ; the ready sale and quick returns for 

 mutton and lamb, and the destruction of sheep by dogs. 



Other reasons submitted in this report were that the demand for 

 wool was more particularly for middle and coarse grades, which found 

 a surer and steadier market than fine wools. The prevalence of pleuro- 

 pneumonia among the cattle of the Commonwealth had in a very 

 marked manner turned the attention of farmers to sheep-raising as 

 being a safer as well as more profitable investment. But the most satis- 

 factory reason was found in the steady, gradual demand for mutton 

 and lamb in the markets, an increase in a much greater ratio than the 

 population, going to show that the people were rising in their apprecia- 

 tion of that excellent article of food. The extent of this appreciative 

 growth is shown by a quotation : 



At Brighton, on the market day previous to Christmas, 1839, two Franklin County 

 men held 400 sheep, every one in the market, and yet so ample was that supply and 

 so inactive the demand, that they could not raise the market a half cent a pound, 

 and finally sold with difficulty. Just twenty years after that, at the same place, on 

 the market day previous to Christmas, 1859, 5,400 sheep changed hands from the 

 drover to the butcher. 



In 1860 the sheep of all kinds numbered 123,445, yielding 377,267 

 pounds of wool, showing a loss of 22,000 sheep and 40,000 pounds of 

 wool since 1855. The loss was principally in fine sheep, the coarse- 

 wooled and middle-wooled exceeding the fine-wooled by nearly that 

 number. The demand for wool was on the increase, and the prices 

 more uniform than for many years previous, particularly for middle and 

 coarse wools, which found a surer and steadier market than fine wools. 

 The war of the rebellion suddenly increased the demand for woolen 

 goods of all kinds, sheep husbandry revived, the value of sheep of every 

 description was greatly enhanced, and the production of wool was a 

 vital interest. Sheep increased from 123,445 in 1860 to 169,442 in 1865, 

 producing 596,808 pounds of wool. The fine-wooled sheep numbered 

 but 58,554, the coarse and middle wooled 110,888. The fine-wooled 

 averaged 3^ pounds of wool per head, the coarse- wooled 3^ pounds 



