EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 373 



ounces. A three-year-old ram sheared 13 J pounds. In 1847 Col. John 

 M. Sherwood's flock at Auburn, mostly Blakeslee sheep, were shorn. 

 Sixty-four rams sheared 340 pounds of clean-washed, well-tagged 

 wool. Forty-four were yearlings, 11 were 2 years old, and 9 were older. 

 The average was 5^ pounds each. The Blakeslee ewes, 110 in num- 

 ber, sheared 443J pounds of clean- washed wool, or an average of 4 

 pounds 1J ounces each. This wool was very fine and even and com- 

 manded the highest price. At a shearing in Madison County in 1849 

 B. P. Chapman sheared from 12 sheep 86J pounds of wool. The high- 

 est fleece was 13 pounds, from a ram that after shearing weighed 160 

 pounds. At Chautauqua the same year native sheep gave 2J to 3 

 pounds of wool, Spanish Merinos 3 to 4 pounds, and Saxons If to 2J 

 pounds. Mr. J. D. Patterson had a flock of 550 pure-blooded Spanish 

 Merinos that sheared an average of over 5 pounds of wool each. He 

 also had a pair of French Merinos 1 year old. The ram sheared 14J 

 and the ewe 10}f pounds washed wool. 



In 1845 and 1846 there was a slight revival, in some sections, in favor 

 of the Saxony Merino, and some new blood was infused into existing 

 flocks and a few pure-blood flocks started; but the tariff of 1846, by 

 crippling the fine broadcloth manufacture, stopped the tide in that 

 direction ; thousands of Saxony sheep were slaughtered for their pelts 

 and tallow; and in 1850 the New York Agricultural Society reported 

 that the pure Saxons were declining in favor among the wool-growers. 

 This was attributed to the low price of fine wool for the few years pre- 

 ceding and the smaller quantity produced by this family than from 

 some others. This idea having become prevalent with many breeders 

 of the pure Saxons, they neglected to keep up the quality of their 

 flocks, so essential to the profitable growing of fine wool, and either 

 suffered them to degenerate or merged them with other families. The 

 flock of S. H. Church, Vernou, Oneida County, celebrated for the supe- 

 rior quality of wool and the fine symmetry of the sheep, clipped in 

 1850 an average of 2J pounds of wool; and Joseph Haswell, of Hoosick, 

 Washington County, whose flock numbered 800, succeeded in bringing 

 them up to 3J pounds without impairing the quality of the wool. But 

 the difference realized in the price received did not compensate for the 

 lighter fleece, and it was less piofitable to raise it than the Spanish 

 Merino. In 1845 there were 72,000 Saxons in Seneca County; in 1850 

 but 35,000, and the decline was similar in all parts of the State. 



Xor was the decline in fine sheep confined to the Saxons alone. Wool- 

 growers located in the vicinity of large cities and towns, who had up 

 to 1845 and 1846 bred both Saxony and Spanish Merinos, then began to 

 change their flocks for large-framed, coarse- wooled sheep, whose car- 

 casses were valuable for mutton, and they derived a greater profit from 

 the Leicester, Southdown, and Cotswold sheep and their crosses with 

 the common and other breeds, by the sale of mutton and wool, than 

 from the sale of wool alone from the finer grades of Saxony and Merino. 



