EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 413 



The Department of Agriculture estimates the number of sheep in 

 New York January 1, 1890, at 1,548,426. From other sources the esti- 

 mate is made that over half of these are of English blood and that less 

 than half are descendants of the common sheep and Merinos and their 

 grades. There are very few sections of the State where the former 

 presence of the Merino does not show itself, but at present it is waning. 

 While the improved English breeds produce the best mutton, the 

 Merinos do not produce the worst, and the day may not be far distant 

 when the prejudice against it may be removed. Certain it is, we must 

 look to this sheep alone for improvement in our fleeces, nor can it be 

 possible that it will ever be discarded entirely, for where large flocks 

 are kept either for their meat or fleece they rest upon a Merino founda- 

 tion. 



But to be a mutton sheep the Spanish Merino must be bred away 

 from a thick, heavy fleece to a full, rounded, and broader carcass, with 

 a more open fleece and one of less weight; and some see in the French 

 Merino a means to that end. When these sheep were originally intro- 

 duced into New York wool was the only object looked to in the raising 

 of sheep, and as they were inferior in that respect to the Spanish Merino 

 they were driven to the wall before they had a fair trial in any other 

 direction. An importation of these sheep by William G. Markham 

 gives chance for a fair test and revives interest in them. In 1886 Mr. 

 Markham secured a few of these sheep, bred from German flocks tracing 

 to the Eambouillet fold near Paris. He predicts that should they 

 prove hardy they will take the place of the Down breeds for crossing 

 with a view to mutton because of the great value of their wool. At 

 the New York State fair of 1890 some of the descendants of these 

 sheep were shown by Mr. John P. Ray, who also had a few ewes sired 

 by one of these French Merino rams out of Spanish Merino ewes. They 

 were shown in the mutton Merino class and had fine but short wool. 

 They were larger than the Spanish Merino of any family, had shorter 

 wool and filled the mutton idea of a Merino, having a more inviting look 

 than the wrinkly Merino. 



Many prominent wool-growers, however, do not hesitate to say that 

 the day for wool-growing at a profit in New York has passed, and that 

 meat must be the foundation on which the sheep industry of the State 

 must henceforth stand. There are those who go further and say that 

 had mutton breeds been substituted for Merinos fifty years ago our 

 people would ere this have been educated to the consumption of 

 many times more mutton than they now demand, and we would 

 have a grade of mutton that Great Britain would take at remunerative 

 prices. 



In the eastern part of the State of New York sheep husbandry ceased to exist when 

 Merinos were abandoned, because they were unprofitable, and it is now reviving 

 with the introduction of the improved mutton breeds. The industry is steadily grow- 

 ing. Our large cities demand lambs which develop rapidly and lay on flesh quickly, 



