EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 525 



founder of the Wells and Dickinson flock, considered as a distinct 

 family or stock. Columbus, the sire of Americus, was half Muller- 

 German- Spanish and half .Humphreys-Spanish. The dam of Americus 

 not being given, it could not be determined whether his blood contained 

 any other element than those derived from the Muller and Humphreys 

 stock. Most likely this dam, as well as the dam of Columbus, was an 

 Humphreys ewe; and, if so, then Americus would have been three- 

 fourths Humphreys-Spanish and one-fourth Muller-Gerinan-Spanish, 

 and thus we would be led to the conclusion that the chief excellence 

 of the Wells and Dickinson sheep was derived from the Humphreys 

 importation coming through the Caldwell flock of New Jersey. 



Mr. Humrickhouse admitted without reserve the excellence of the 

 Dickinson sheep. It was still discernible when he wrote, especially 

 in the wool, in most of the Western flocks of any pretensions which 

 partook of the blood. But the system of breeding of Mr. Dickinson, 

 who is understood toward the last to have partially admitted the Saxon 

 cross, was such as, while the sheep remained in his hands, to prevent 

 the differentiation of them into a distinct variety. And when the flock 

 was broken up and they became scattered, most of the persons who 

 obtained them either continued the Saxon cross or introduced other 

 elements of diversity; so that, being continually bred toward diversity? 

 the rams could not be relied on for possessing the habit of constancy 

 in the reproduction of their like. The most that could be said of them 

 was that the ewes furnished a good foundation, cheaply attainable, upon 

 which to build a flock by the use of Atwood-Huinphreys rams. The 

 cross proved congenial to them, in consequence of their having originally 

 possessed so large an infusion of the Humphreys blood.* 



The presence of the Saxon cross in the Dickinson flock is not admit- 

 ted by all, and an extensive breeder of Wellsburg, W. Va., writing 

 to the Cultivator, under date of November 23, 1847, asserts that 

 the remarkable Saxon fineness of wool for which the flock became 

 noted was due entirely to Mr. Dickinson's own good management, and 

 that with the exception of the descendants of the Muller- Hesse Cassel 

 ram, his floi'k originated from Spanish sheep of various importations. 

 This view is adopted by another correspondent of the same publica- 

 tion, in March, 1850, in these words: 



It does not, therefore, necessarily follow that because sheep produce wool which 

 is finer than ordinary Merino that they are Saxons, or that any of their ances- 

 tors came from Saxony. . We might refer, by way of illustration, to examples in 

 our own country, such as the flock of the late W. R. Dickinson, of Steubenville, 

 Ohio, and other flocks in Ohio. Virginia, and Pennsylvania which were derived from 

 this. The great fact to be kept in view is that the properties of the animals (includ- 

 ing wool) are modified by the influences which are brought to bear on them. These 

 influences may be classed as food, climate, shelter, and especially the rules observed 

 in the selection of stock for breeding. Thus the Merino sheep, in the course of sev- 

 eral generations, may be made to produce either finer or coarser, longer or shorter 

 wool than the original stock. 



* Ohio Agricultural Report, 1854, 



