ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 251 



of no greater benefit which an enterprising farmer 

 can bestow upon California than by importing a flock 

 of choice sheep of the best varieties to test our 

 capacity to compete with Australia and other coun- 

 tries, in the wool markets of the world." 



At this very fair premiums were awarded for 

 exhibits of Leicestershires and Southdown sheep, and 

 at the fair of 1857 awards were made to two exhibi- 

 tors for imported French Merinos. Such sheep as 

 Colonel Crockett prayed for were actually in Califor- 

 nia two years before the date of his oration. J. E. 

 Perkins wrote this as history in an essay for which 

 he was awarded a premium by the State Agricultural 

 Society in 1864 : 



"In 1854 enterprising sheep raisers, believing from 

 the fact that poor sheep did so well on California 

 climate and feed, higher classes of sheep could be 

 profitably grown for their fleece alone, set about 

 importing purebred merinos from Vermont and 

 New York. Curtis & McConnell of Sacramento 

 brought the first Spanish merinos from Vermont. 

 Other importations -of Spanish and French merinos 

 followed; also Cotswolds, Leicestershires and South- 

 downs. Large quantities of Australian sheep were 

 also brought in and sold at extreme prices." 



Introductions* of pure-bred sheep which began 

 apparently in 1854 continued in great variety and 

 numbers, so that at the state fairs before 1860, there 

 were exhibitors to the number of thirty-four, showing 

 200 pure-breds at a single exhibition. The breeds for 

 which premiums were awarded were Spanish, French, 



