508 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



ing was toward a delaine wool. The foundation of a branch of textile 

 industry, that of combing, spinning, and weaving wool into fine worsted 

 goods, was laid by Mr. E. K. Mudge, of Boston. This process of 

 combing, instead of carding, is one in which the fibers or strands of 

 wool are laid parallel with each other and spun at full length in the 

 yarn, thus getting all the strength of fiber. It is thereby susceptible 

 of being made the finest as well as the strongest and most durable of 

 any fabric of woolen production, and, moreover, it became very fash- 

 ionable. Hence the utility of growing a wool that would meet this 

 demand. The breeders of the Meade and Dickinson sheep thought 

 they could supply the desired article and bred in that direction, for 

 what was then termed a Delaine Merino. 



The foundation of this Merino was found in many of the Washington 

 County flocks, and particularly in those of John McNary, William 

 MeNary, Ebeuezer McClelland, George Craighead, and others already 

 noticed. To these must be added the flock of E. H. Eussell, of Houston- 

 ville. The foundation of this flock was the purchase of 50 Bh\ck-Top 

 Merino ewes from William Davis, of North Strabane, in 1852. The 

 William Davis flock was made from selections from the flock of William 

 Brownlee. On these 50 ewes and their descendants were bred rams of 

 the old Black-Top flocks, purchased of well-known breeders, always 

 keeping in view a large, well-developed sheep, and never keeping a ewe 

 for breeding purposes unless she was such as combined a healthy, vig- 

 orous constitution and large form with a* big fleece. Thus within itself, 

 more than by additions from purchase, were many of the best charac- 

 teristics of the flock attained. An oily, large, and in many respects a 

 very popular Vermont ram was bought about 1860, and used for three 

 years. In 1871 the Spanish ram Victor was purchased of John M. 

 Miller. He was a sheep of uncommon individual merit as to constitu- 

 tion, form^ size of body, as also to covering, length and thickness of 

 wool, and impressed his characteristics upon the flock for many genera- 

 tions. His wool was long and strong in fiber. Although from 14 pounds 

 when he was a lamb to 20 pounds weight at maturity, the fleece was so 

 large and white that it was always regarded even at that weight as 

 merchantable wool. This ram, Victor, and the ram purchased from Mr. 

 0. H. Beall and added to the McClelland flock, known as the Beall ram, 

 gave name to the Victor-Beall Delaine Merino, now known as the 

 Delaine Merino. 



To encourage the future line breeding of this sheep an association 

 was formed in 1882 "to combine in one prepotent animal all the excel- 

 lencies of the different classes of the Merino family of sheep on a mutton 

 carcass, which is to compete sharply with the so-called mutton breeds 

 for supremacy in the mutton markets of the country." In the preface 

 to the first volume of its register the association claims that the family 

 of sheep designated as the Victor-Beall Delaine Merino has, by years of 

 careful breeding, assumed certain characteristics so well established 



