360 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



flock by the purchase of a ram lamb and 10 ewes of Horace Gilbert, of 

 Bichniond, brought from Rhode Island the preceding year. The flock 

 descended to J. 0. Short, and still exists, and has a most excellent 

 record for fine wool and heavy fleeces. In 1825 Edward Swan, Honeoye, 

 Ontario County, had presented him a pair of pure-bred Merinos, a ram 

 and ewe, from a choice Long Island flock. They were bred in-and-in 

 for fifteen years, when a Rich ram was used in the flock, and after this 

 other rams from noted flocks. In 1825 E. Kirby, of Brownville, Jeffer- 

 son county, formed a flock by the purchase of 500 high-grade Merinos 

 and by subsequent additions, which he endeavored to improve by the 

 infusion of Saxon blood. He soon repented this experiment, and pur- 

 chased ranis of D. C. Collins and Jacob N. Blakeslee, and began in 

 1842 to breed back to the Spanish Merino. Reed Burritt began a flock 

 of Jarvis Merinos, crossed with the Saxons, in 1825 and 1826, and soon 

 found he had a flock of tender sheep and light shearers. Twenty-five 

 per cent of lambs were lost. In 1835 he removed to western New York, 

 abandoned the Saxonies, and built up a new Merino flock, purchasing 

 Spanish Merinos of Stephen Atwood, Connecticut, and W. R. Sanford, 

 Vermont. Subsequently he purchased rams and ewes of S. W. Jewett 

 and John T. Rich and built up a flock second to none in the State, and 

 from which many have drawn their best blood, and some of the Wis- 

 consin flocks owe their excellence to a few taken there in 1846, 1850, 

 and 1853. Another flock, formed before 1830, was that of Mr. Walker, 

 De Ruyter, Madison County, which was a Jarvis flock. Matthias 

 Hutchinson, of Kings Ferry, was an early purchaser from Mr. Walker, 

 and formed a flock of 300 to 500 Merinos, good sized and strong con- 

 stitutioned. From the Hutchinson flock Mr. S. N. Franklin in 1835 pur- 

 chased 25 ewes and bred to Vermont rams. In 1883 this flock numbered 

 5 rams and 68 ewes. A branch of this flock is that of Spencer D. Short, 

 of Honeoye, who purchased from stock raised by Mr. Franklin. Henry 

 S. Randall procured a pure flock of Humphreys sheep in his boyhood 

 days, and bred them pure and distinct from sheep of other importa- 

 tions for several years. Later in life he drew rams from Vermont and 

 elsewhere, and mixed different strains of American Merino blood. 

 There were many others who, from 1820 to 1840, formed flocks, prin- 

 cipally by purchases in Vermont, but the information concerning them 

 is meager and unsatisfactory, and they have ceased to exist, leaving 

 no history. 



The New York Merino Register states that few, if any, flocks appear- 

 ing in it were established earlier than 1860. This Register for 1883, 

 however, directs special attention to the great care bestowed upon 

 their flocks by many of the New York breeders that enabled them to 

 trace the individual pedigree of each sheep through several generations 

 to the various purchases which form the foundation of flocks. Most of 

 the New York flocks trace their ancestry to Vermont and Connecticut, 

 and New York now claims a considerable share in the honors accruing 



