EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 487 



ram sheared 16J pounds unwashed wool, and 3 ewes 7 pounds each. 

 Four Silesian ewes averaged 3 ^ pounds washed wool. 



The wool industry in western Pennsylvania was attended with the 

 same fluctuations as elsewhere and for similar causes. In 1851 it was 

 slightly on the decline, and in 1854 had not recovered. In Beaver 

 County the fluctuations of price had discouraged growers, whose sheep 

 were a cross with Saxon and Spanish, few if any common sheep being 

 kept. In Allegheny every farmer had a small flock of sheep of some kind. 

 The greater part of these were Spanish Merinos, though there were some 

 full-blood Southdowns and Leicesters. Fayette County had long been 

 the home of some fine sheep, both for mutton and wool ; the Saxon and 

 Spanish had been extensively bred, and, from time to time, various 

 coarse-wooled sheep had been introduced, but the latter never rendered 

 satisfaction. The Saxony sheep eventually ruined some of the fine 

 flocks of the county, but by 1854 were about banished. They cost 

 $1.50 a head a year and gave 2J pounds of wool, which sold for 40 cents 

 a pound, entailing a loss of 50 cents per head, but the Spanish Merino 

 yielded from 4 to 12 pounds of wool and there was a good profit on a 

 fleece. 



From this time to 1862 the Spanish Merino was gradually extended 

 and improved. The demand made by the war for coarse woolens caused 

 some coarse-wooled sheep to be raised and some of them were substi- 

 tuted for the Merinos. This continued until the close of the war, when 

 wool of all kinds was a drug on the market. Fine-wool sheep were 

 being disposed of, but more began to cross their flocks with the long- 

 wool sheep, the Cotswold rams being admitted into old Merino flocks 

 where the Saxony and French had been excluded. It was suggested, 

 and by some adopted, to preserve an unmixed stock of Merinos as the 

 basis of operations when the tide turned in their favor, and at the same 

 time derive present revenue from early lambs and coarse wool by cross- 

 ing with long-wooled rams. This practice served as a foundation when 

 the fine wool was again in demand and flocks again filled up and were 

 multiplied from 1872 to 1882. 



A noted flock of Fayette County, in the southwestern part of the 

 State, was that of Gen. John S. Goe, of Brownsville. In 1846 he bought 

 some Atwood Merinos from several of the old breeders of Spanish 

 Merinos, as descended from the various importations. He annually 

 purchased some Atwoods and a few other select animals, and con- 

 stantly weeded out such as did not meet his expectations. In April, 

 1858, .he purchased 6 Atwood ewes and a ram from the flock of E. J. 

 Jones of the original divide of Edwin Hammond and E. P. Hall. In 

 September, 1858, he purchased an Atwood ram and 4 ewe lambs of Mr. 

 McKeever. In the following November he bought of Mr. McKeever 17 

 ewes, 12 of which were from Mr. Hammond's Atwoods, and 5 from Mr. 

 Atwood's own flock, these being in lamb by his Hammond- Atwood ram. 





