

EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 377 



On the other hand there were good showings for the Saxons. Solo- 

 mon Hitchcock, of Livingston County, had been a wool-grower since 

 1834, and admitted witli all the prominent wool-growers of his day that 

 sheep consumed food in proportion to their own weight, and also (other 

 circumstances being the same) that it required an equal amount of food 

 to produce a pound of wool without regard to the size of the sheep. 

 So, after having the weight of the fleece and its value per pound, it TV as 

 necessary to have the weight of the living animal from which to cal- 

 culate the cost of growing the fleece before the profits could be deter- 

 mined. 



In 1846 Mr. Hitehcock became convinced in his own mind that as 

 many pounds of Saxon wool from ewes weighing about 62 pounds each 

 (the common weight of a full-grown Saxon ewe) could be raised on 100 

 acres of laud as could be grown on the same of Merino wool from ewes 

 weighing about 88 pounds each (about the common weight of a full- 

 grown Merino ewe). Earns, wethers, and younger sheep of each herd 

 would weigh in the same proportion to each other as the ewes. With 

 the view of testing this by experiment he purchased 4 ewes and 5 rams 

 from the Saxon flock of Thomas W. Swift, of Dutchess County, and 13 

 ewes from another flock descended from Swift's. These sheep, collec- 

 tively considered, had no superior for symmetry, quantity, and quality 

 of fleeces. It is true that they were not so large as Merinos, but this 

 was thought to be of little consequence when it was considered that 

 100 pounds of the Saxons produced the same amount of (equally clean) 

 wool as the same weight of Merinos, and that it cost no more to keep 

 100 pounds of one than of the other. Mr. Hitchcock made a pains- 

 taking experiment and gave the result to the public through the columns 

 of the Genesee Farmer. 



One week after washing he sheared an equal number of Saxon and 

 Spanish Merino ewes, selecting them so that they should not differ in 

 n.uv. or condition, or in wastage of their wool by cleansing. He weighed 

 these selected sheep and their fleeces immediately after they were shorn 

 and found that the Saxons gave 1 pound of wool for every 18 pounds 

 of their li ve weight, and that the Spanish Merinos gave 1 pound for a 

 fraction less than 19 pounds of their live weight. The average weight 

 of the Saxons was 63 pounds ; the Spanish Merinos, 72 pounds. The 

 Saxons were rather above the medium weight of the flocks from which 

 they were selected. The Spanish Merinos were weighed at a time when 

 they were, perhaps, lighter than at any other season of the year. 



Besides the above a number of other Merino ewes were weighed, some 

 of which went from 90 to 100 pounds; but in every case it was found 

 that it took from 18 to 19 pounds live weight to produce a pound of 

 wool. The Saxon Merino wool had a market value of 50 cents per 

 pound, the Spanish Merino 35 cents per pound. 



Accepting the proposition that these two kinds of sheep consume 

 food and shear clean wool in proportion to their own weight, then the 

 farmer keeping 400 Spanish Merino sheep (the young and old of which 



