EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 535 



Iflorth of the river counties and Muskingum Valley, from the eastern 

 border of the State, halfway westward across it, lies the Western 

 Reserve, settled principally by New England people, who brought with 

 them eastern stock and eastern modes of husbandry. The first improve- 

 ment on their sheep was made by Che Wells and Dickinson sheep and 

 those from Washington County, Pa. 



Mahoning County, on the Pennsylvania border, has had a good repu- 

 tation as a wool-growing county. Its early sheep were those from Penn- 

 sylvania and from the Wells and Dickinson flocks. In 1832 John Bing- 

 ham began a flock by purchases of sheep from Enoch Marvin and John 

 Marshall, of Beaver, Pa. When he commenced the average weight of 

 fleeces was 3 pounds; by judicious crossings with rams of pure blood, 

 he increased the average to 4 pounds. In 1856 he bought a yearling 

 ram of Merrill Bingham, of Vermont. His fleece, of one year's growth, 

 weighed 20 J pounds. In 1862 his flock of 300 averaged 6 pounds per 

 head washed wool. John Brownlee commenced a flock in 1837, from 

 Black Top Merino and Saxony sheep, and some common or native sheep. 

 They were then crossed with Saxon rams till the fleeces became very 

 light, say 2J to 3 pounds. He then bought 2 Spanish Merino rams and 

 12 ewes from Vermont, and for five years bred from Spanish Merino 

 rams. The result of this cross increased the fleeces to 4 pounds through- 

 out the whole flock. Asa W. Allen, of Ellsworth, had a Vermont flock 

 in 1855, which he substituted for sheep then general in his vicinity, 

 brought from Columbiana County, Ohio, and western Pennsylvania. 

 In 1859 E. M. Montgomery purchased thoroughbred Vermont Merinos 

 and introduced them into the county. Previous to 1855 the Saxons 

 were very numerous in the county, but from that date they declined. 



The sheep of Trumbull were similar to those of Mahoning, the com- 

 mon improved by the Ohio and Pennsylvania Merinos, then crossed by 

 the Saxon and then again by the Spanish Merino of Vermont and New 

 York. The history of two full-blood flocks may be given to illustrate 

 the formation of most of them. In 1834 Aaron Griffith bought 31 ewes 

 of Adam Hildenbrand, and in the year following 60 in Washington 

 County, Pa., of the McKeever stock, or the Black-Top Merino. As the 

 flock increased from year to year he selected as breeders those which he 

 considered as the most perfect animals, retaining as much as possible 

 fineness of fiber, and seeking to increase the length of staple and weight 

 of fleece, always upon a good-sized and well-formed sheep. Believing 

 that the Spanish Merino was the most profitable sheep for central Ohio, 

 in the purchase of rams he sought to breed his sheep to conform to that 

 type. N. E. Austin obtained, in 1846, about 500 sheep, the average ot 

 Gen. James S. Wadsworth's flock in Livingston County, N. Y., and 

 brought them to his form in Trumbull County. They were all fine-wooled 

 sheep. He crossed with the Saxons and got very fine, light fleeces 

 of 2J pounds. As that could not be made profitable, he used Spanish 

 Merino rams and brought the average up to 4J pounds of wool per 

 head. 



