EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 259 



6 pounds; his rams from 7 to 9 pounds per head. The heaviest ewe 

 fleece that year was 6 pounds 6 ounces, and the heaviest ram fleece 12 

 pounds 4 ounces. All the weights given are of washed wool, and Mr. 

 Atwood washed his sheep as thoroughly as possible in the river, and 

 let them run six or eight days before shearing. Add to the weights as 

 given the usual allowance for shrinkage by river washing, which is 

 about one-third, and the old Eiggs ewe would show 6 pounds 6 ounces 

 as her best fleece, unwashed, as against the same weight given by a ewe 

 in 1844, of washed wool. Making the same addition for shrinkage, the 

 last fleece would weigh unwashed 9 pounds 9 ounces. This difference 

 of 3 pounds and 3 ounces is, then, just the amount of improvement that 

 Mr. Atwood was able to show on his best ewe in 1816, or in twenty-eight 

 years. In 1816, the first year in which his minutes show the weight of 

 a ram fleece, his heaviest ram fleece weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces. In 1844 

 his heaviest ram fleece was 12 pounds 4 ounces. These fleeces, with the 

 addition of the shrinkage by washing, would have weighed the first, 

 10 pounds 12J ounces, the last 18 pounds 6 ounces, or a gain of 7 

 pounds 9J ounces in the period of twenty- eight years. These same 

 memoranda, when compared with his statement to Mr. Morell in 1844, 

 that his ewes would each shear yearly 5 pounds and his rams from 7 

 to 9 pounds, show that Mr. Atwood made as great proportionate in- 

 crease of weight of fleece on his whole flock as on these best rams and 

 ewes. From 1820 to 1844, while increasing his flock of full-blood ewes 

 from 7 to 75, he improved the weight of their fleeces fully 2 pounds of 

 washed, or 3 pounds of unwashed wool; the 7 in 1820 shearing an aver- 

 age of 2 pounds 15 ounces washed, equal to about 4 pounds 8 ounces 

 unwashed; the 75 in 1844 an average of 5 pounds washed, or 7 pounds 

 8 ounces unwashed. In view of these facts it is certain Mr. Atwood 

 never received full credit for the great improvements he made in the 

 weights of his fleeces. Considering his lack of light, of examples of 

 improvements, and the large increase of numbers of his flock, it can 

 safely be said he deserves equal credit with noted succeeding breeders 

 on this point.* 



It were well at this point to follow the line of this improvement made 

 by others on the Atwood sheep. In 1844 Edwin Hammond, of Middle- 

 bury, Vt., purchased 29 ewes and 3 rams of Mr. Atwood and his neigh- 

 bors. The rams and a part of the ewes were from the Atwood flock, and 

 were of Atwood's own breeding. These ewes were divided after they 

 were taken to Vermont, but the rams were owned in company. In 184."> 

 27 ewes and 1 ram were purchased of Mr. Atwood. Two more pur- 

 chases were made in company with Mr. E. P. Hall, and one subse- 

 quently in which Mr. Hall was not interested. One of the purchases 

 was the entire crop of ewe lambs raised by Mr. Atwood in one year. 

 These purchases were all made of Mr. Atwood within a period of three 

 years from the time of the first purchase in January, 1844, and formed 



* Register of the Vermont Merino Sheep Breeders' Association, Vol. II. 



