EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



307 



had 1,099,011 sheep, yielding 3,571,786 pounds of wool. The great im- 

 provement made by her breeders is well known and has been partially 

 stated in the preceding pages. Consul Jarvis said that his flock from 

 1811 to 1826 averaged 4 pounds washed wool, his best stock ranis shear- 

 ing 6J pounds, or equivalent to 9J pounds unwashed fleece. This may 

 be taken as a starting point. In 1844 Mr. Jarvis stated that he had 

 bucks in high condition that sheared as high as 7J pounds each, or 11J 

 pounds of unwashed fleece. In 1846 an Atwood ram sheared a 15- 

 pound fleece, which, when thoroughly cleansed, gave 6 pounds of scoured 

 wool, and shortly after Mr. Atwood gave the average weight of 

 fleeces in his flock as 5 pounds for his ewes, lambs the same, wethers 6 

 pounds, and ranis 7 to 9 pounds. The heaviest ewe's fleece was 6 pounds 

 6 ounces and the heaviest ram's fleece 12 pounds 4 ounces all washed 

 as clean as possible in the river, and sheared in six or eight days alter. 

 In 1854, at a sheep-shearing in Addison County, 8 rams and 2 year- 

 ling ewes, whose aggregate weight was 999 pounds, gave 109 pounds 14 

 ounces unwashed wool, or a trifle short of 11 pounds each. The live 

 weight of the sheep and weights of the unwashed fleece were: 



These figures show a considerable advance on the weights as given 

 in 1846. The improvement held good in the ordinary wool-growing 

 flocks of the State. In Rutland County good flocks sheared 5 pounds 

 per head, washed on the sheep 5 in Washington County, 4 to 4J pounds; 

 in Orange County, 2 to 6 pounds, according to condition 5 flocks of 

 100, which it was estimated consumed 18 tons of hay, giving 600 pounds 

 of wool and raising 85 to 90 lambs. At Springfield, Vt., flocks of 300 

 to 400 gave 3J to 4 pounds annually per head, and J. W. Colburn, in 

 June, 1851, clipped 500 fleeces averaging a trifle over 4 pounds each, 

 after a thorough cold-water wash on the sheep's back. 



In 1866 Mr. A. L. Binghain sheared from 45 ewes 503 pounds of wool, 

 or an average of 11 pounds 3 ounces each, unwashed ; and 1 two-year-old 

 ram gave 25 pounds 2 ounces. In the same year Rollin J. Jones, of 

 West Cornwall, Vt., sheared 45 ewes of 508 pounds 10 ounces, or an 

 average per fleece of 11 pounds 5 ounces. The gross weight of the 

 ewes after being shorn was 2,515 pounds 3 ounces, or an average weight 

 per head of 55f pounds. 



On May 1, 1867, about 1,000 of the sheep-breeders of Rutland County 

 were present at the first annual shearing of their association at Rut- 



