EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI KIVER. 357 



Although the Merinos were now very numerous in the United States, 

 and particularly in the vicinity of New York City, these figures show 

 that they still ruled high, indicating the great profits accruing on them, 

 and the consequent desire to possess them. This desire was not con- 

 fined to full-bloods, and to supply the demand for a cheaper animal with 

 fine wool the market was reasonably full of one-fourth, half, three- 

 fourths, seven-eighths, fifteen- sixteenths, and thirty-one-thirty-seconds 

 blooded sheep, which brought fair prices and went on to farms where 

 it was proposed to substitute t^eni for common sheep. A common 

 method was for a few neighboring farmers to buy each four or five of 

 these sheep, and between them a full-blooded ram, and thus gradually 

 convert their flocks. The purchase of a half-blood or a three-fourths 

 blood shortened the time by a year or two at not much additional cost. 

 This was a method sometimes adopted to grow rapidly the raw material 

 for the support of a woolen factory, it being found more desirable to 

 hasten the product by buying half-bloods than to wait an additional 

 year by starting on the common sheep, for the full-bood Merinos were 

 not sufficiently numerous to supply the large demand of the manufac- 

 turer. Where wealth was at command extensive and expensive arrange- 

 ments were made, as may be seen by this extract from the New York 

 Gazette, May 9, 1814: 



We understand that Governor Tompkins has purchased a large tract of land on 

 Staten Island, which he contemplates inclosing for an immense sheep-fold for the pur- 

 pose of improving the breed of Merino sheep. The land is high, intersected with 

 pleasant valleys. The line commences in the rear of the quarantine ground and takes 

 in all the mountains seen from New York City. It will cost $100,000 to build a stone 

 wall around it. 



If Governor Tompkins seriously contemplated what the paper credits 

 him with, it is certain that he never carried his thought into execution. 



The Merinos on the Hudson were of a superior quality, and the 

 recorded weight of many fleeces show a high average. In June, 1813, 

 14 animals sheared 110 pounds of wool; 8 gave 60 pounds 12 ounces, 

 one ram yielding 13 pounds. In June, 1819, Col. John Storm, of Fish- 

 kill, sheared a full-blooded Merino ewe whose fleece weighed 18 pounds. 

 The ewe was 4 years old and had never before been shorn. The wool 

 was of fine staple and from 16 to 18 inches in length. 



While New York as a State is particularly well adapted to sheep 

 breeding, the central portion and the western are peculiarly circum- 

 stanced in that respect, possessing fertile soil producing the various 

 kinds of grasses and forage plants. The Merinos soon found their way 

 westward from the Hudson Kiver counties. In 1807 N. Goodsell, after- 

 wards the editor of the Genesee Farmer, procured a pair of Merinos 

 from Col. Humphreys and drove them into Oneida County. With the 

 exception of the Dupont ram and the Livingston flock they were the 

 first introduced into the State. The Merinos w r ere also taken into 

 Oneida County in 1818 by the Mount Merino Association, organized by 



