EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



395 



Mr. P. Martin, of Bushville, had some fleeces scoured, and preserved 

 me record : 



A ram fleece weighing 19 pounds scoured 7 pounds 4 ounces. 

 A ewe fleece weighing 19 pounds scoured 7 pounds 1 ounce. 

 A ewe fleece weighing 16^ pounds scoured 5 pounds 4 ounces. 

 A ewe fleece weighing 13 pounds scoured 4 pounds 15 ounces. 

 A ewe fleece weighing 13 pounds scoured 4 pounds 12 ounces. 

 A ewe fleece weighing 15J pounds scoured 5 pounds 6 ounces. 



A Wyoming County flock of 83 Merinos sheared 890 pounds of un- 

 washed wool. The 5 rams of the flock sheared 25 pounds 4 ounces, 21 

 pounds, 18 pounds 12 ounces, 22 pounds, and 27 pounds 4 ounces. 

 From a Monroe County flock 3 rams sheared 20 pounds, 16 pounds, and 

 22 pounds 3 ounces, and 10 ewes averaged 12J pounds each. 



The decade from 1860 to 1870 witnessed a wonderful improvement in 

 thoroughblood flocks, but a great decline in the number of fine-wooled 

 sheep and a further substitution of the coarse-wooled mutton sheep 

 throughout the State. The State census of 1855 showed a clip of 2,630,161 

 fleeces weighing 9,331,202 pounds, an average of 3.55 pounds per head. 

 In 1864 the clip had advanced to 3,804,982 fleeces, weighing 15,801,864 

 pounds, or an average of 4.15 pounds per fleece. In 1865 the fleeces 

 numbered 3,783,935, weighing 15,347,445, or an average of 4.06 pounds 

 per fleece. There was a slight decline all around, a decline which was 

 rapid to 1870, when the number of sheep was 2,181,578,yielding 10,599,225 

 pounds of wool, a loss in five years of 1,602,357 sheep and 4,748,220 

 pounds of wool. But the average amount of wool per head increased 

 from 4.06 in 1865 to 4.86 pounds in 1870. In 1875 the number of sheep 

 declined to 1,489,956, wool to 7,369,857 pounds ; and the average per 

 head of wool increased to 4.95 pounds. 



Between 1824 and 1840 the Saxony Merino absorbed the Spanish 

 Jerino, and for the few years preceding 1840 the great wool-growing 



<-ks of the State were mostly of Saxon blood, and when from 1840 to 

 jl850 these began to be abandoned no other wool-growing sheep imme- 

 diately took their places. The losses on the Spanish Merinos in 1815, 

 and later on the Saxons, had not been forgotten, and many farmers 

 turned their attention to dairying, which proved a steadily and highly 

 remunerative department of husbandry. But gradually the Spanish 

 Merino regained favor and grew in esteem. It returned to many farms 

 from which it had been banished and supplanted newer and more ainbi- 



