552 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



An early Southdown flock was that of J. F. King, of Warren, who 

 commenced breeding Southdown sheep in 1844 with stock from the 

 flocks of Jonas Webb, Babraham, England, imported by J . M. Hesless, 

 of Trumbull County, Ohio. In 1848 Mr. King bought of L. G. Morris, 

 of New York, a ram bred from imported stock and known as the Mor- 

 ris ram. Descendants of this flock are found in some of the best Ohio 

 flocks of the present day. The mutton sheep rapidly increased through- 

 out the State and furnished the markets not only of the State, but 

 those to the eastward. The Ohio mutton sheep was a common Merino 

 crossed by a Down or Leicester ram. 



The trade to the east received its greatest impetus in the low prices 

 of wool from 1842 to 1845. When flocks were culled and sometimes 

 sacrificed, drovers went through the country, bought up all the sheep 

 that they could get at a low price, and drove them eastward, where 

 they were sold to eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey farmers to be 

 fattened for the Philadelphia and New York markets. This business 

 increased from 1845 to 1860, and the surplus and increase of flocks were 

 thus disposed of. 



The census of 1860 showed Ohio to have 3,546,767 sheep, shearing 

 10,608,972 pounds of wool. This was a loss of 396,162 sheep since 1850, 

 and of 1,300,000 since 1854. But notwithstanding the decrease of sheep 

 from 1850, the amount of wool increased over 400,000 pounds. The yield 

 of wool per head increased from 2.58 pounds in 1850 to 2.98 pounds in 

 1860. This increase indicated an advance in the system of breeding 

 and better management of flocks. 



The war of the rebellion gave a great impetus to wool-growing. At 

 first the wool market was depressed, fine wool falling from 60 cents in 

 January, 1860, to 38 cents in July, 1861, and medium wool from 50 cents 

 to 30 cents in the same period. In 1862 the demand for woolen goods 

 was large and imperative, and in the spring of 1863 wool advanced 50 

 per cent over the winter price, and sheep doubled in value. At no time 

 in the previous history of the State was the demand for wool so great. 

 It advanced from 48 cents in July, 1862, to 85 cents in October, 1863, 

 and $1 in July, 1864. Every farmer increased the number of sheep on 

 his farm, and men of all classes, not farmers, were attracted to wool- 

 growing all intent on obtaining a sheep that would shear the greatest 

 number of pounds of wool. Ohio, New York, and New England breed- 

 ers could scarcely meet the demand made upon them for thoroughbred 

 Merino rams, and they gathered in a fine pecuniary harvest. The Ohio 

 Agricultural Eeport for 1862 gives a list of over 1,200 flocks of half, 

 three-quarters, and full-blood Merinos, numbering over 230,000 sheep in 

 flocks from 6 up to 6,000. Many counties were not included in the 

 enumeration, and the counties enumerated were far from being fully 

 represented. From these flocks and from Vermont and other blood a 

 new era in Merino- sheep industry set in, and the march of improvement 



