EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 505 



for tine wool diminished and half-blood or medium became more market- 

 able more Saxony flocks were crossed. 



The Saxonies of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia were not 

 the delicate sheep they were found to be in the East, but were as hardy 

 as any introduced there and remarkable for the quality of their wool. 

 In 1870 there were still left in Brooke and Ohio counties, W. Va., 

 ."o,000 to 60,000 Saxony sheep, producing each 2J to 3 pounds of wool, 

 and nearly all the fine-wool growers who had abandoned the Saxony 

 some- years previous, to introduce into their flocks the Vermont Span- 

 ish sheep, discontinued the use of the latter. They decided that the 

 increased weight of fleece did not compensate them for foot-rot and 

 other drawbacks, which were not known among the Saxonies and the 

 old Black-Top Merino, or by what was better known as the Wells and 

 Dickinson sheep. But the low price of Saxony wool was discouraging 

 to the growers and a gradual change came about, by which the Delaine 

 Merinos were substituted for both the Saxony and the more objection- 

 able strains of the Spanish Merino. 



A few Silesian sheep were introduced into the county about 1858, a 

 smooth, well formed and handsome sheep, about the weight of the 

 Saxon, the rams weighing 100 to 120 pounds gross. The wool was fine 

 and well set on the animal, containing as many fibers to the square 

 inch as the Saxon or any of the finer breeds, and at one time when 

 fine wool with a short staple was much sought for they would have been 

 esteemed as a valuable acquisition, but in 1858 to 1860, when a longer 

 staple was in demand without so much regard to fineness, they did not 

 receive much attention and their introduction was limited to a few 

 flocks and in small number. In West Virginia they were more popular, 

 and many flocks were crossed with them about 1860 and a few succeed- 

 ing years. An argument against the Silesian was that it was inferior 

 to the Vermont Atwood Merino. In 1864 W. P. Atkinson, of Elm 

 Grove, W. Va., had three Silesian rams. Two of them were sheared in 

 May without being washed. One weighed after the fleece was off 143 

 pounds. His wool in the dirt weighed 10 pounds, which after scouring 

 weighed 3^- pounds. The other one weighed 121 pounds, the unwashed 

 fleece 9 pounds, and when scoured 3 J pounds. An Atwood ram, at the 

 same time, weighing 79 pounds, gave 10 pounds, unwashed, and 3J 

 pounds of scoured wool, or, considering the weight of carcass, 50 per 

 cent more wool than the Silesian. 



The war of the rebellion made a demand for all kinds of wool, coarse 

 and fine; all sold alike, but the grower of superfine wool made the least 

 money. The demand for the greasy, heavy-shearing rams of Vermont 

 and Xew York became a rage, and most of the wool-growers went with 

 the current in that direction ; few, indeed, made any effort to resist it. 

 The breeding of the Spanish Merino became very profitable, and gave 

 a great impetus to the production of a heavy fleece producing sheep. 

 The result was a decided increase of wool per head, from 3.17 pounds 



