SHEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 195 



am sorry to say, that as many as one third of the 

 sheep purchased by Kretchman (who shared profit 

 and loss in the undertaking) were not pure-blooded 

 sheep. The cargo were sold at auction at Brooklyn 

 as ' pure-blooded electoral Saxons,' and thus, unfor- 

 tunately, in the very outset, the pure and impure 

 became irrevocably mixed. But I feel the greatest 

 certainty that the Messrs. Searle intended to import 

 none but the pure stock ; the fault lay with Kretch- 

 man. In the fall of 1824, 1 entered into an arrange- 

 ment \vith the Messrs. Searle to return to Saxony, 

 and purchase, in connexion with Kretchman, from 

 160 to 200 electoral sheep. I was detained at sea 

 seven weeks, which gave rise to the belief that I 

 was shipwrecked and lost. When I finally arrived, 

 the sheep had been already bought by Kretchman. 

 On being informed of what the purchase consisted, 

 1 protested against taking them to America, and in- 

 sisted on a better selection, but to no purpose. A 

 quarrel ensued between us, and Kretchman even 

 went so far as to engage another to take charge of 

 the sheep on their passage. My friends interposing, 

 I was finally induced to take charge of them. The 

 number shipped was 167, 15 of which perished on the 

 . passage. They were sold at Brighton, some of them 

 going as high as from $400 to $450. A portion of 

 this importation consisted of grade sheep, which sold 

 as high as the pure bloods, for the American pur- 

 chaser could not know the difference. It may be 

 readily imagined what an inducement the Brighton 

 sa!e held out to speculation, both in this country and 

 Saxony. The German newspapers teemed with ad- 

 vertisements of sheep for sale, headed ' Good for the 

 American market;' and these sheep, in many in- 

 stances, were actually bought up for the American 

 market at five, eight, or ten dollars a head, when the 

 pure bloods could not be purchased at from less than 

 $30 to $40. In 1836, Messrs. Searle imported three 

 cargoes, amounting in the aggregate to 513 sheep. 



