EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 519 



* 100,000. Many who bad flocks sold them and purchased cattle, but 

 when prices revived, in 1887, sheep again came into favor, and farmers 

 who had sold their flocks at a low price paid high figures to get stocked 

 again, but the tendency was towards mutton sheep to the neglect of 

 the Merinos. The high price of land, the development of natural gas 

 and oil, and the increase of dogs, have operated to retire many from 

 the special business of wool-growing. 



A veteran wool- buyer made this statement in 1888 : In 1847 he bought 

 1,700,000 pounds of wool at an average price of 29 cents. In 1848 

 he bought 859,000 pounds at 28J cents. At that time there was not a 

 clip in twenty that made 3 pounds to the fleece. In 1888 the entire clip 

 of Washington County averaged over 5 pounds. Take it at 30 cents 

 and we have more than $1.50 per head, almost double the amount 

 received forty years before. In 1840 he bought 1,400 wethers at $1.12 

 per head. In 1888 the same grades sold at $4. He had been a wool 

 buyer forty-one years, and when he looked over the list of men who went 

 into wool- growing early and gave it close attention he found that they 

 had all been successful. For the last few years ewes that could be 

 bought for $3 per head were safe for 5 pounds of wool at 30 cents. This 

 was a return of $1.50, while a lamb produced by the ewe would bring 

 an additional $1.50. It cost $1 to keep the sheep. So for $4, the cost 

 of ewe and keep, there was a return of $3 cash, and an old ewe was on 

 hand, worth $3. 



The Panhandle counties of West Virginia from 1860 to the present 

 day have shown no decrease in their wool product, but, upon the whole, 

 a gratifying increase. Hardly as large flocks are now kept by indi- 

 viduals as a few years ago, it being found that an appropriate admix- 

 ture of grain growing, owing to the increased fertility of the soil, is more 

 profitable. The flocks range from 100 to 1,000, and there are more of 

 them. 



Up to within a few years the raising of sheep for wool alone monopo- 

 lized the attention of breeders, but now all the mutton breeds are rep- 

 resented in Washington County and in West Virginia. These have 

 increased, and the demand is greater than the supply, while the fine- 

 wool sheep have correspondingly decreased. The easy access to good 

 markets afforded by railroads has encouraged the raising of early lambs, 

 and many shepherds are crossing their Merinos with the downs. The 

 Leicesters and the Southdowns have long been known in the county, 

 and have been represented by some good flocks, but of the former few, 

 if any, now exist in the pure state. ' The Cotswolds were introduced 

 prior to 1876, but they are not particularly well adapted to the climate, 

 and are found not to stand the changeable weather as well as some of 

 the short- wooled breeds. Experience, however, proves that for crossing 

 on the Merinos they are equal to any of the breeds. There are but 4 

 or 5 flocks in Washington County, and about the same number in the 

 four Panhandle counties of West Virginia. These flocks are small, 



