456 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



breeds. To introduce a proper admixture of the fine with the coarser 

 wooled sheep would tend to equalize the price and bring it more within 

 the compass of farmers in general. It were better to see every farmer's 

 little territory spotted with a few sheep than to see the flocks of a 

 Merino nabob extending far and wide. Beneficent systems of human 

 affairs had their abuses, and from these the Merino system was not 

 exempt.* 



There were many, however, who did not agree with Col. Taylor and 

 his followers, many who considered the Merinos and all other sheep 

 as a blessing and not as a curse, as the savior of Virginia agriculture 

 and not its destroyer, and manufactures as the handmaid of agricul- 

 ture. These argued that all the ordinary stock of wool was con- 

 sumed in manufactures and all that could be procured by our import 

 trade and by all the foreign breeds of sheep. The great effort of the 

 farmers, north and east, to produce wool did not keep pace with the 

 increasing demand ; hence the price of wool kept up, and under these 

 circumstances, when wool was in demand, was it wise, asked some, to 

 keep on raising tobacco to be dutied and plundered, or was it the part 

 of wisdom to decrease tobacco and raise more sheep, produce more and 

 better wool, and provide a marKet at home, free from injury, insult, and 

 vexation, whereby the industry of the women and children and the 

 power of machinery with a little aid from regular and skillful male 

 manufacturers the people could be truly independent and prosperous? 



Notwithstanding Col. Taylor's writings and the prejudice en gendered 

 by those who followed him, there were some fine flocks of Merino sheep 

 in the State. Jefferson had made them numerous in his neighborhood 

 and there were many in the upper and eastern part of the State along 

 the borders of the Potomac. Gen. John Mason distributed many from 

 the increase of his flock on Analostan Island. Gen. Thompson Mason 

 had a choice flock of Infantados on his estate adjoining Mount Vernon, 

 and Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford. King George, Fau- 

 quier, and Jefferson counties had a few choice flocks. Many of these 

 gradually disappeared, so that by 1820-1825 but few of full blood were 

 remaining. In June, 1823, a gentleman of Fairfax County sheared a 

 flock of 525 mixed Merinos, from which he obtained 2,36S pounds of 

 wool free from tags, or an average of little more than 4J pounds per 

 sheep, not as great as in former years, in consequence of the flock con- 

 taining a larger proportion of breeding ewes than usual. This wool 

 sold in the Alexandria market for 40 cents a pound, which price it held 

 for the four years preceding. In 1825 W. H. Fitzhugh, Ravenswood, 

 near Alexandria, was still maintaining a pure flock. 600 to 700 of which 

 he offered for sale. There were at the time other flocks of which no 

 record has been preserved. Western Virginia, that part of the State 

 lying beyond the mountains, had fine flocks, which will be noted in con- 



* The Agricultural Museum, Georgetown, January 23, 1811. 



