EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 663 



this course of improvement, for such a policy would condemn tlie adoption of all our 

 best breeds of horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs ; for all have been produced by careful 

 and judicious crossing and selection, and all improvements in stock can be main- 

 tained only by a reasonable share of the same care and judgment by which the im- 

 provement was originally effected. 



To maintain the improvement, to obliterate discrepancies, and pro- 

 duce complete uniformity and fixity of type, Col. Scott bred in 1854 to 

 five select rams of his own breeding. The progeny showed some suc- 

 cess in the direction aimed at, and though there was some variation in 

 their carcasses and fleeces, they were in all respects beautiful and valu- 

 able animals of their kind. Still carrying out the same design, in the 

 fall of 1855 he tried chiefly to a mixed ram, in which was blended Cots- 

 wold, Oxfordshire, Teeswater, and Southdown blood. He was a finely 

 formed sheep, of large size and a thick fleece of medium length and 

 fineness of fiber, and his lambs possessed great beauty and value. In 

 185G he bred chiefly to a large and fine Cotswold, and in 1857 to him 

 and to a ram of mixed blood, the ewes being so selected and bred as to 

 produce a more complete uniformity in the progeny, those having a 

 predominance of Southdown and Merino being bred to the Cotswold, 

 and those having a predominance of Cotswold qualities being bred to 

 the mixed-blood rams. In 1858 two large and fine rams of his own 

 breeding were used in the same manner and for the same objects 

 chiefly, that is, to give uniformity and stability to the flock. A few 

 ewes were also bred, in 1858, to a very fine mixed-blood ram, which 

 was a perfect model of symmetry, and which had taken a premium 

 at the Kentucky State fair, at Louisville, that year. In October, 

 1859, the flock of about 100 ewes was again selected and bred with a 

 view to the same object, about one-half being bred to the above-men- 

 tioned premium animal and the remainder to a selected and fine im- 

 proved Kentucky sheep, Avhich had a fleece of remarkable length, fine- 

 ness of fiber, and was of good size and fine form. By this time the 

 sheep were as essentially alike and uniform, maintained their identity 

 and imported their qualities as surely, as sheep of any other breed. 

 They had been exhibited with success at many State and county 

 fairs, and had been sold and sent to almost every State in the A\Yst 

 and South and to California; and all that Col. Scott could raise 

 from a flock of about 100 ewes found ready sale at the uniform price 

 of $30 for those 1 year old and under. After 1860 and up to 1866 well 

 selected rams of his own breeding and those of Leicester and of Cots- 

 wold blood were used by Col. Scott in such a manner as to impart some 

 valuable qualities either to the fleece or the carcass, or to the constitu- 

 tion of the progeny; pure Cotswold, superior in form and size and fleece, 

 being raised in 1865 and 1866. In the last-named year Col. Scott pre- 

 pared an article for the annual report of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture which has been used almost literally in this sketch, in which he 

 claimed that through the means used he had secured essential uniform- 

 ity, and produced a sheep that could face the bleakest winters and the 



