378 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



average 65 pounds) could on the same feed keep 472 Saxons of same 

 age averaging 55 pounds. The gross weight of each flock is 26,000 

 pounds. Allowing 1 pound of wool to every 18 pounds live weight 

 would be 1,444 pounds. 



1,444 pounds Saxon AVOO!, at 50 cents per pound $722. 00 



1,444 pounds Spanish Merino wool, at 35 cents per pound 505. 40 



Difference in favor of Saxons 216. 60 



The papers of the State and of other States were full of similar state- 

 ments, but nothing could prevent the condemnation of the Saxons; the 

 weight of the testimony seemed to be against them. 



With the disappearance of the Saxony was the advent of the French 

 Merino. These sheep, introduced into Connecticut in 1840 and 1846, 

 and into Vermont in 1846, 1847, and subsequent years, found their 

 greatest IsTew York admirer in 1848 in the person of John D. Patterson, 

 Westfield, Chautauqua County. Mr. Patterson made his first impor- 

 tation in 1848, and continued the increase of his flock by annual impor- 

 tations for many years. In 1853 he purchased 1 ram from the celebrated 

 flock of M. Cugnot for $600, also 2 rams from the flock of M. Gilbert for 

 $400 each. Mr. Patterson's earlier importations were described as 

 unusually large for fine-wooled sheep, the ewes when of full age and in 

 good condition weighing from 120 to 150 pounds each, and some of the 

 rams over 300 pounds each. Their wool was of good quality, though 

 not equal to Saxony for fineness nor up to the standard of the Spanish 

 Merino. The wool was thick and compact, covering their entire 

 bodies, thick and long on their bellies and legs, and their heads and 

 faces sometimes so completely covered as to blind them, and unless 

 sheared away frequently injured their sight. His imported ewes 

 sheared 15 pounds each on the average, of one year's growth, in a per- 

 fectly natural condition, or unwashed, and some of his ranis sheared 

 much more. They were prolific; a good portion of the ewes had twins, 

 and as they were good mothers there was no difficulty in raising their 

 lambs, and the flock raised 50 per cent more lambs than there were 

 ewes in it. In 1853 Mr. Patterson had many half and three-quarter 

 French bloods, and he found that the larger the infusion of French 

 blood the larger the sheep and the greater the increase in the weight 

 of fleece. 



F. M. Rotch, of Otsego County, who imported some of the French 

 Merinos in conjunction with Mr. Taintor in 1851, considered those of the 

 first class as a superb sheep, but they varied greatly. In his opinion 

 they were not suited to the American style of rough farming. Though 

 a vigorous, good constitutioned, and hardy sheep, they were accustomed 

 to so much care and watchfulness in their native laud that they were 

 unable to endure the rough-and-tumble style of much of our farming. 

 The north side of a barn or the lee of a rail fence for animals that had 

 been housed every night in the year at home was too much of a change. 

 With proper care they were able to endure even our vicissitudes of climate, 



