184 



OUR DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



Sheep on the Swiss Alps 



chiefly to the Alps, where the sheep that spend 

 the winters near the mouths of the Rhone and 

 along the banks of the Crau are congregated 

 in summer. On the plains of the Crau they are 

 never put into sheepcots except at shearing 

 time. At night they are kept in inclosures 

 made with hurdles of willow branches, renewed 



e\ery second day. The shep- 

 herds stay night and day with 

 their flocks in the open air, 

 the dogs keeping watch out- 

 side the hurdles against wild 

 animals. In the morning each 

 shepherd takes out his troop 

 and leads it to the pasturage 

 ajipointed for it. The Merino 

 was first brought to the 

 United States in 1801, be- 

 tween which date and 18 12 

 large numbers, probably as 

 many as twenty thousand, 

 were landed and scattered 

 chiefly through New England, 

 the Atlantic states, and Ohio. 

 Conspicuous in these importa- 

 tions were David Humphreys, 

 Minister to Spain; Chancellor Livingston, Min- 

 ister to France ; and William Jarvis, Consul to 

 Portugal. These gentlemen, mindful of the im- 

 portance of the sheep industry in the United 

 States at the time, which called for wool of 

 fine quality and fine fiber, carefully e.xamined 

 the sheep in these countries, and, being satisfied 



Spanish Sheep 



