260 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



the foundation of the flock of Atwood sheep that afterwards became so 

 famous in the hands of Edwin Hammond. Mr. Hammond was the 

 leading breeder of his time, and made great and rapid strides in the 

 improvement of Merino sheep. In February, 1863, Henry S. Randall 

 visited this flock, and states that the sheep composing it were 



large, round, low, strong-boned sheep models of compactness, and not a few of 

 them almost perfect models of beauty for fine-wooled sheep. They were in very 

 high condition, though the ewes were fed only on hay. Two of these weighed about 

 140 pounds each. Numbers would have reached from 110 to 125 pounds. One of the two 

 largest ewes had yielded a fleece of 17| pounds, and the other Impounds of unwashed 

 wool. The whole flock, usually about 200 in number, with the due proportion of 

 young and old, and including, say, 2 per cent of grown rams and no wethers, yields 

 an average of about 10 pounds of unwashed wool per head. The ram Sweepstakes, 

 bred and owned by Mr. Hammond, has yielded a single year's fleece of unwashed 

 wool weighing 27 pounds. His weight in full fleece is about 140 pounds. Earns 

 producing from 20 pounds to 24 pounds are not unusual in his flock. 



This shows a great improvement, equal to that made by Mr. Atwood, 

 but not exceeding it. From 1814 to 1844 Mr. Atwood improved the 

 fleeces of his ewes equal to 3 pounds of washed wool, and from 1844 to 

 1863 Mr. Hammond did about the same, or perhaps a little less, for, 

 according to Mr. BandalFs statement, the whole flock in 1862 sheared 

 about 10 pounds each, or only about 2 pounds 8 ounces more than Mr. 

 Atwood's ewe fleeces, unwashed, sheared at the time Mr. Hammond 

 purchased of him, and this statement of Mr. Eandall includes the 

 rams of Mr. Hammond's flock, which Mr. Atwood's did not. 



Mr. Albert Chapman, in his exhaustive article on the improvement 

 of Merino sheep, published in the second volume of the Eegister of 

 the Vermont Merino Sheep Breeders' Association, in noticing Mr. Ham- 

 mond's flock and his improvement on Atwood's sheep, says : 



Mr. Atwood's heaviest ewe fleece in 1844 was equal to 9 pounds 9 ounces unwashed 

 wool; Mr. Hammond's in 1862, 17 pounds 8 ounces, or nearly double, though just 

 how much the heaviest ewe fleece weighed, shorn the first year after he received his 

 Atwood sheep, we have no data to show; but all the accounts and data we have of 

 both flocks do show that the improvements effected by both these breeders were very 

 great, and entitle both to a large measure of praise and gratitude for the superior 

 judgment and skill they exercised in breeding their flocks, the great improvement 

 they effected in Merino sheep and left for the use of those who have followed them- 

 It lias been charged by some that Mr. Hammond greatly increased the size of his 

 sheep and the weight of their fleece by introducing the blood of the French Merino 

 into his flock of Spanish Merinos ; or, as expressed by one of his critics, his sheep 

 " took a big jump after he had wintered a French ram." Mr. Hammond never mate- 

 rially increased the size of his sheep. We do not believe he thought any such* 

 increase was desirable. The rams Old Matchless and Old Black were quite as large as 

 Sweepstakes. Mr. W. R. Remele, who was a partner with Mr R. P. Hall in the 

 sheep purchased of Mr. Atwood, and who, as administrator of the estate of Edwin 

 Hammond, sold the main portion of the flock after his death, says the live weight 

 of the flock at the time of Mr. Hammond's death was not individually 1 pound 

 greater on the average than when he brought them from Connecticut in 1844. As to 

 increasing the weight of his fleeces by a French cross, there is no probability that 

 such a cross would have produced such a result. 



