524 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



a handsome profit to those engaged in it, and it is yet to be hoped that this branch 

 of American enterprise will not be allowed to languish away for want of Govern- 

 ment protection. About 1, 200 ewes and wethers of the first and second qualities, 

 two-fifths of which were wethers, sold for an average of $3.16 per head. Another lot 

 of about the same number of third and fourth qualities brought on an average of, 

 for ewes, $3.25, and for wethers, $1.63. Five ewes and 5 bucks of the first quality 

 sold for $22.50 per head; 45 bucks (principally yearlings, small and poor) sold at 

 from $5 to $40; the best averaged $22.50. 



The sale of this flock was chronicled at the time as a national disaster, 

 but according to Mr. James McDowell it was an inferior flock of 

 grade sheep, which had been previously bought for 62J cents per head, 

 and which were " levied upon by the United States marshal to make 

 the money on for the Government." 



The sheep Mr. Dickinson prized were placed in the hands of Michael Hildeubrand, 

 of Stark County, long before the trouble arose with the Government. All his high- 

 bred sheep, which he had been breeding for many years, were put in the care of 

 Adam Hildeubrand. These sheep were beyond the reach of the Government in any 

 event, but the public did not know it. Mr. Dickinson had intended to remove these 

 sheep to Texas; was at Houston in July, 1.831, taken sick with yellow fever, and died 

 there July 28, 1831. * * * He might have lived to see the blood of his flocks dis- 

 seminated throughout the nation, as the sheep bred by him have, since his death, 

 been scattered, and lost their identity, by being crossed with many other breeds or 

 families of Merinos. They have been rendered almost worthless for stock purposes, 

 except such as have been kept pure and correctly bred to fix the high orginal type 

 for future breeding purposes.* 



Mr. McDowell further asserts that as the flock belonging- originally 

 to James Caldwell was sent by Samuel L. Howell to Mr. Dickinson to be 

 bred upon shares, Mr. Dickinson taking half the increase, it was not 

 sacrificed under the hammer, but was sent to a distant county, where 

 it suffered much deterioration and fell below its former high estate, but 

 it had done much to improve the character of many Ohio flocks. 



Adam Hildenbrand, in a statement made in 1861, says that Mr. 

 Dickinson received on shares 200 very fine and heavy shearers from 

 Dr. Howell, and 



this was considered the best improvement on Mr. Dickinson's flock. I superin- 

 tended his flock from 1820 until 1830, when Mr. Dickinson failed. Being thoroughly 

 acquainted with his entire flock, I selected, with the best of my skill, 600 of the best 

 of his flock. In 1831 1 again purchased 600 of the best of his original flock, retaining 

 on shares Dr. Howell's flock for two years, which is the true basis of my flock. It 

 remained thus as founded by Mr. Dickinson until 1850, Avheii I purchased a small 

 flock of full-blooded Spanish Merinos. 



A scientific and successful breeder, who saw the Hildenbrand flock 

 in 1844, said : " It has much of the old Merino character about it wool 

 thick and close on the pelt, rather short in staple, full of yolk, dark on 

 the outside ; a heavy fleece." 



In 1854 Mr. T. S. Humrickhouse, a successful and intelligent breeder 

 of Merino sheep in Coshocton County, Ohio, asserted that Americus, of 

 the Caldwell flock, was undoubtedly the ancestor and, so to speak, the 



* Dickinson Spanish Merino Sheep Register, Vol. I. 



