532 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



raised by Charles Cook. Soon afterward lie bought the celebrated ram 

 Little Brownlee from the estate of Thomas Noble. Mr. Noble was an 

 extensive wool-grower of the county, who formed his flock in 1834 by 

 the purchase of Dickinson sheep from Adam Hildenbrand, and added 

 to it two celebrated rams from the flock of William Brownlee, of Wash- 

 ington County, Pa. In 1844 his flock numbered over 1,500, and aver- 

 aged 3 pounds of wool per head. Jacob Dager in 1853 purchased from 

 Mr. Brownlee and Mr. Eankin a ram and a few ewes, the predominant 

 blood being Saxon. He bred them two years, but the wool being too 

 light he went back to the pure Dickinson Spanish and bred in that 

 line until 1860, when he introduced the Atwood blood. Ames D. Baker, 

 in 1851, and Samuel Boyd, in 1852, formed flocks from the Washington 

 County, Pa., sheep; from 1852 to 1860 many large flocks were formed, 

 full-blood and grades, mostly from the flocks above named, reinforced 

 by Vermont rams. In 1860 H. E. Wise had 185 Atwood Merinos, from 

 which he sheared 1,028 pounds of wool. 



The oldest recorded flock of Carroll County is that of Joshua Leggett, 

 which was started in 1833 from Pennsylvania Merinos. In 1839 Mr. 

 Leggett purchased a half-blood Saxon ram brought from New York, 

 and in 1845 a full-blood Saxon ram from Samuel Patterson, of W T ash- 

 ington County, Pa., which was said to have been bred from a New 

 Jersey flock. This reduced the weight of his clip, but added to its 

 fineness. In 1849 he purchased a half-blood Black-Top, which added to 

 the weight of the fleece, and in 1856 a Spanish Merino ram from Ver- 

 mont was added, which increased the length of fiber and weight. From 

 this ram he bred others that clipped 10 pounds, and ewes that clipped 

 from 5 to 7 pounds, washed clean on the sheep. There were very few 

 large flocks in this county until after 1850, and these had for their 

 foundation the sheep of the neighboring counties, and from the border 

 counties of Pennsylvania and Virginia, graded up by the use of Ver- 

 mont rams. 



Harrison County received its fiue-wooled sheep from Jefferson and 

 Stark, and from western Pennsylvania, and went through the same 

 early experience of crossing. The Saxons were early introduced and 

 ran the yield of wool to a low figure, and they held their ground and 

 were preferred on account of the fineness and cleanness of their wool 

 as late as 1850, at about which time the tide set in for the Silesian and 

 the Vermont Merino. The experience of most wool-growers of the county 

 can be told in that of one of them. William Eagleson, of Cadiz, bred 

 an excellent flock at an early day. In 1853 his flock was composed 

 entirely of Saxon blood and sheared 2f pounds per head. Mr. Eagleson 

 then made two successive crosses with Silesian rams, making his flock 

 run three-fourths Silesian and one-fourth Saxon, raising the weight per 

 fleece up to the minimum of 4 pounds, a gain by crossing with the Sile- 

 sian of 1J pounds per fleece. In 1857 he disposed of that portion of the 

 flock composed of pure Saxon blood, and crossed the grades above men- 



