194 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



They brought their implements of husbandry, and 

 their domestic animals to fertilize the wilderness. 

 Each, it would be natural to suppose, made choice 

 of the favourite breed of his own immediate district, 

 to transport to the New World, and the admixture 

 of these various races formed the mongrel family 

 now under consideration. Amid the perils of war 

 and the incursions of beasts of prey, they were pre- 

 served with sedulous care. As early as 1G7G, Mr. 

 Edward Randolph, in a " Narrative of the Lords of 

 the Privy Seal," speaks of New-England as " abound- 

 ing with sheep."* 



The common sheep yielded a wool only suited to 

 the coarsest fabrics, averaging in the hands of good 

 farmers from three to three and a half pounds of 

 wool to the fleece. They were slow in arriving at 

 maturity compared with the improved English 

 breeds, and yielded, when fully grown, from lo to 

 12 pounds of a middling quality of mutton to the 

 quarter. They were usually long legged, light in 

 the fore-quarter, and narrow on the breast and back, 

 although some rare instances might be found of 

 flocks with short legs, and some approximation to 

 the general form of the improved breeds. The com- 

 mon sheep were excellent breeders, often rearing, 

 almost entirely destitute of care, and without shel- 

 ter, one hundred per cent, of lambs, and in small 

 flocks a still larger proportion. These, too, were 

 usually dropped in March or the earlier part of 

 April. Restless in their disposition, their impatience 

 of restraint almost equalled that of the untamed ar- 

 gali ; and in many sections of our country it waa 

 common to see from 20 to 50 of them roving, with 

 little regard to enclosures, over the possessions of 

 their owner and his neighbours, leaving a large por- 

 tion of their wool adhering to bushes and thorns, 

 and the remainder placed nearly beyond the possi- 



' Colonial Papers of Massachusetts. 



