THE RAMBOUILLET 521 



in size, in weight and quality of fleece, in a better mutton form, 

 and in more hardiness than had their Spanish ancestors. While 

 the claim has been made that the stock at Rambouillet has been 



kept pure, in 1 900 the author saw rams in -the government flock 



which were heavy with folds, of marked A character, and dif- 

 ferent from the type the French advocated. The Rambouillet 

 was also developed by private parties in France and Germany. 

 In 1800 M. Victor Gilbert of Wideville, France, started a flock 

 from one ram and eight ewes bought of the government, and this 



FIG. 231. A dignified gateway on the government farm at Rambouillet, France. 

 From photograph by the author 



flock was maintained for a century in the same family by a son 

 and a grandson named Victor. In northern Germany the breed 

 was later introduced and was much developed, notably in the re- 

 gion south of the Baltic Sea and north and northeast of Berlin. 

 Baron F. von Homeyer of Ranzin, Pomerania, in 1850 purchased 

 some sheep of the flock at Rambouillet, and with these as foun- 

 dation stock became the greatest German breeder and materially 

 increased the size and improved the weight and quality of fleece. 

 The introduction of the Rambouillet to the United States first 

 occurred in 1840, under the name of French Merino, by which 

 title it was generally known until about 1889. The first importa- 

 tion appears to have been made in 1840 by D. C. Collins of 





