EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 437 



try east of the Alleghanies. In 1853 and 1854 it was tlie same, but in 

 1855 Aaron Clement, of Philadelphia County, obtained a premium fora 

 Spanish Merino ram. The fine display of Southdowns, Leicesters, Cots- 

 wolds, New Oxfordshires, and mixed breeds, showed the great change 

 that had come over sheep husbandry. Where the growing of wool was 

 formerly lucrative it was now abandoned. The time when it was profita- 

 ble to raise sheep for the wool interest alone had gone by. It was found 

 necessary to combine the carcass with the fleece, to have an eye to the 

 value of the flesh as an article of food as well as to the wool for cloth- 

 ing. The farmers adopted the system initiated so successfully by their 

 New Jersey neighbors, of purchasing strong, healthy, common ewes or 

 Merino grades, in the fall, breeding them early to Southdowns or long- 

 wooled mutton rams, and selling the spring lambs and such of the ewes 

 as reached a marketable condition in the following season in the 

 Philadelphia and other large markets. A Southdown or Cotswold 

 ram to a grade Merino or common ewe gave a lamb which, dropped in 

 April or early in May, sold in July or August for $4 to $6. and the 

 mother soon followed at nearly the same price. Wethers were also 

 bought out of droves and fattened for market at considerable profit. 



Taking the State as a whole, there was small variation in the number 

 of sheep from 1840 to 1880. In 1840 it was 1,767,620, in 1880 it was 

 1,776,593, and the variation in the intermediate census did not exceed 

 150,000. But there was a shifting of location. The decline in eastern 

 Pennsylvania was very great, while the increase in western Pennsyl- 

 vania was very large, the loss in one section being offset by the gain 

 in the other. And there was a change in the character of the sheep. 

 Eastern Pennsylvania rapidly changed the Merino for the mutton breeds, 

 while in the West the Merino received the principal share of attention. 

 Since 1880 the decline in the whole State has been very marked, the num- 

 ber of sheep falling off from 1,776,598 in 1880 to 945,002 in 1890. The 

 decline began in 1885, and may be followed by the inspection of the fol- 

 lowing returns as given by the Statistician of the Department of Agri- 

 culture : 



Sheep. 



1884 1,749,236 



1885 1,486,857 



1886 1, 189, 481 



1887 1,094,323 



1888 984,891 



1889 935, 640 



1890 945,002 



The causes assigned were the low prices of wool and mutton. The 

 decline was general throughout the State, and it was said that so gen- 

 erally had the sheep disappeared that it was rarely a sheep was seen 

 except on a freight car from the West. Whole flocks were sold between 

 1884 and 1887 at a very low price, but prices advanced in the latter year 

 and many who had sold out stocked up again j but the tendency was 



